A New York man who said he donated sperm to a female co-worker as a friendly
gesture and sent presents and cards to the child over the years likely will owe
child support for the college-bound teenager, according to a judge's ruling.
From The Seattle Times Saturday, December 1, 2007
By Sophia Chang
Newsday
MELVILLE, N.Y.
"What's the saying? No good deed goes unpunished," said Deborah Kelly, a
Garden City lawyer for the man, who like all the involved parties remains
anonymous because of privacy concerns.
Family Court Judge Ellen Greenberg ruled Nov. 16 that despite the mother's
willingness to have the child's DNA tested, the man could not seek a paternity
test to determine if he is the biological father because the results could have
a "traumatic effect" upon the child, who is now 18 and lives in Oregon with the
mother.
The next step is a meeting with a support magistrate to determine the amount
of child-support payments — if any — the man would have to pay until the child
turns 21, Kelly said.
Even without genetic evidence, the man's interactions with the child over the
years had a patriarchal nature, said Jeffrey Herbst, a county attorney who
represents the mother in the lawsuit through a federal agreement called the
Uniform Interstate Family Support Act.
"It's still a parental relationship," Herbst said.
According to the man's testimony, in the late 1980s he was a physician at the
same Nassau County hospital where the child's mother was a resident. After
learning the woman and her female partner wanted to have a baby, the man donated
his sperm and the woman gave birth July 26, 1989. The man, married at the time,
agreed he would not have any rights or benefits in rearing the child, but the
oral agreement never was put in writing, according to court documents.
But he took the unusual step of allowing his name to appear on the child's
birth certificate because he thought it was in the child's "best interests that
he would have an identity when he grew older," he said in court documents.
Before the mother, her partner and the child moved to Oregon in 1993, the man
had contact with the child, he said. He also sent the child money, gifts and
cards and letters signed "Dad" or "Daddy," and spoke to him by phone about seven
times in the past 15 years.
That correspondence, coupled with an affidavit from the child stating that he
"has never known anyone other than [the man] to be his father," is enough for a
parental relationship, according to Herbst.
"The fact of the matter is that he held himself out as the child's father for
18 years until he asked for DNA testing," Herbst said.
When it comes to artificial insemination by a known donor, the best
protections are to have everything in writing and "do your homework," said
reproductive lawyer Melissa Brisman of Park Ridge, N.J.
"You can't be half a father, and half a not, under the law," she said.
But the man's trust was abused, his lawyer said.
"The doctor was told this is how it's going to be," Kelly said. "And 18 years
later, you end up dealing with something that you didn't know you were going to
deal with. Sometimes people aren't really thinking about the legal
ramifications."
Copyright © 2007 The Seattle Times Company
Last update : 2007.12.01 - 15:40
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