In New Jersey two couples are contesting in court the custody of an infant whose existence would have been unlikely ten years ago. Conceived by Mary Beth Whitehead from the sperm of William Stern introduced into her body through artificial insemination, the infant has been given the name Sara by her maternal parents, and Melissa by her paternal parents. She has been named Baby M by the communications media.
Artificial insemination is nothing new.
The novel and complicating issue in this case is that Mary Beth Whitehead promised to give her baby to the Sterns immediately after birth. However, she changed her mind and now wants to rear the child in her family. Thus, not only does this case present some novel questions about custody of children, the question arises whether to recognize legally contracts for so-called surrogate motherhood. Actually, a more accurate term for the contract is surrogate parenting because the father is a surrogate as well. As it happens so often in our society, the contestants in this dispute went to court in order to solve an ethical issue.