But the couple's marriage soured during the pregnancy, and although Luanne planned to raise the baby, John claimed he shouldn't have to pay child support because he was not the biological father. The lack of precedent led the trial judge to throw up his hands and rule, astonishingly, that the child, Jaycee, had no legal parents. Let us get right to the point. Jaycee never would have been born had not Luanne and John both agreed to have a fertilized egg implanted in a surrogate. The higher court was willing to make new law and rule that John's intent to be a parent was enough to hold him responsible.
Most courts try, however, to fit new reproductive technologies into old laws.
But the pigeonholes that judges choose vary from state to state. Nowhere is the lack of precedents more complicated than in dealing with frozen embryos. The fertility drugs given to women in IVF programs sometimes create more embryos than can be implanted safely. As many as 20,000 frozen embryos are the subject of disputes, according to New York state Sen. Roy Goodman, who in 1997 chaired hearings in Albany on the topic. And judges are left struggling with whether to apply precedents governing people or property.