Opinion ID: 6358025
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Standing as a parent

Text: C.G. argues that she is a parent to Child under 23 Pa.C.S. § 5324(1) because Child was conceived via assistive reproductive means using an anonymous sperm donor; Child was born to C.G.'s partner, J.H., during their relationship; C.G. participated in parenting Child; and C.G., J.H., and Child lived together as a family unit for the first five years of Child's life. C.G.'s Brief at 19, 24. She contends the Superior Court erred when it held the term parent is limited to the biological or adopted parents of a child. She urges this Court to hold that legal parentage under Section 5324(1) should include those who intend to bring a child into the world with the use of assistive reproductive technology and then co-parent the child subsequently born through that process, in addition to the traditional concepts of parentage by biology and adoption. See id. at 21. She highlights that  medical options to conceive are varied and open to a variety of intended parents. 4 Moreover, same-sex couples, in particular, necessarily feature non-biological parent/child relationships because the couple must turn to donor gametes to conceive. Id. at 25. C.G. reasons that reading this Court's decision in Ferguson v. McKiernan , 596 Pa. 78 , 940 A.2d 1236 (2007) with the Superior Court's decisions in In re Baby S. , 128 A.3d 296 (Pa. Super. 2015) ; J.F. v. D.B. , 897 A.2d 1261 (Pa. Super. 2006) ; and L.S.K. v. H.A.N. , 813 A.2d 872 (Pa. Super. 2002), illustrates that a genetic connection to a child is not determinative of legal parentage in cases involving assistive reproductive technologies. See id. at 27-35. Consequently, C.G. advocates for an intent-based approach to determining legal parentage when a child is born through the use of assistive reproductive technology. See id. at 27-35. C.G. also posits that this intent-based approach is consistent with how other jurisdictions and the Uniform Parentage Act (2017) have addressed related issues. 5 C.G.'s Brief at 35-38. 6 J.H. emphasizes the stringent test applied in determining who has standing in child custody matters is essential to preventing unnecessary intrusion into a family. See J.H.'s Brief at 38-42. She continues that the cases C.G. relies on for the proposition that parentage may be determined by intent do not support that reading of the case law because those cases do not relate to parentage by intent, but parentage by mutual assent of the parties. Id. at 49. She continues that it would be wrong to allow [C.G] to be deemed a legal parent  in the absence of [J.H.'s] assent, especially when [C.G.] outwardly voiced objections to the pregnancy and thereafter failed to discharge parental duties. Id. J.H. notes that although C.G. accuses the trial court of relying on discriminatory laws in concluding she was not a parent, the court undertook an examination of the evidence to evaluate the intent of the parties in the conception of Child and C.G.'s discharge of parental duties, in its in loco parentis analysis, which is the same standard C.G. advocates for in determining parentage when a child is born via assistive reproductive technology. Id. at 50. She emphasizes the factual findings made by the trial court regarding C.G.'s participation in Child's life and asks this Court to disregard C.G.'s factual assertions that were not credited by the trial court. 7 See id. at 50-57. She maintains that C.G. is not a parent based on the credible evidence accepted as fact by the trial court. See id. at 60. Section 5324 does not define the term parent. Absent a definition in the statute, statutes are presumed to employ words in their popular and plain everyday sense, and the popular meaning of such words must prevail. Centolanza v. Lehigh Valley Dairies, Inc. , 540 Pa. 398 , 658 A.2d 336 , 340 (1995) (citing Harris-Walsh, Inc. v. Borough of Dickson City, 420 Pa. 259 , 216 A.2d 329 (1966) ). The popular and everyday meaning of the term parent plainly encompasses a biological mother and a biological father and persons who attain custody through adoption, and our case law supports those applications. See J.F. , 897 A.2d at 1273 (Well-settled Pennsylvania law provides that persons other than a child's biological or natural parents are 'third parties' for purposes of custody disputes. (citation omitted) ); Faust v. Messinger , 345 Pa.Super. 155 , 497 A.2d 1351 , 1353 (1985) (Recognizing, [t]he entire body of law pertaining to adoption harmonizes in order to place an adopted child in the shoes of a natural child in all legal respects[.] However, the reality of the evolving concept of what comprises a family cannot be overlooked. See Troxel , 530 U.S. at 63 , 120 S.Ct. 2054 (The composition of families varies greatly from household to household.); J.A.L. v. E.P.H. , 453 Pa.Super. 78 , 682 A.2d 1314 , 1320 (1996) (Observing, increased mobility, changes in social mores and increased individual freedom have created a wide spectrum of arrangements, filling the role of the traditional nuclear family[.]). Thus, C.G. directs our attention to cases that specifically involve the use of alternative means of conceiving and or reproducing through assistive reproductive technologies, and asks this Court to revisit and expand the definition of parent to include persons involved in the process but bearing no biological connection to the resulting child. 8  J.F. v. D.B. , involved the relative rights of parties to a surrogacy agreement vis-à-vis the resulting triplets. In that case, an unmarried couple used the services of a surrogate, an egg donor, and the father's sperm to reproduce. The gestational carrier, who bore no genetic relation to the triplets she delivered, began misinforming Father and his partner, the intended-mother of the children, about the pregnancy and ultimately took them home and assumed them as her own. The trial court voided the surrogacy contract, and concluded the gestational carrier stood in loco parentis and was the children's legal mother. On appeal, the Superior Court held that the gestational carrier was a third party and had not established in loco parentis as she took custody of the children in flagrant defiance of Father's wishes, it further held the trial court erred in voiding the surrogacy contract and concluding the gestational carrier was the legal mother. Id. at 1280. The surrogacy contract at issue identified Father as Biological Father or Adoptive Father and his partner as Biological Mother or Adoptive Mother. J.F., 897 A.2d at 1265 . Although Father's partner was not named in the action, the Superior Court concluded the trial court erred in voiding the surrogacy contract. The court declined to rule on the propriety of surrogacy contracts in general, leaving that task for the General Assembly to address. J.F. , 897 A.2d at 1280 . It is undisputed that C.G. was not a party to a contract in connection with Child's birth, and her reliance on J.F. to support the intent-based approach to parentage is misplaced. This Court addressed a situation involving contracting for release of parental rights in the context of assistive reproductive conception in Ferguson v. McKiernan . Mother in that case sought the assistance of a former paramour (Donor) in conceiving a child. Although reluctant initially, Donor agreed to provide his sperm for purposes of in vitro fertilization after Mother agreed to release him from any rights and or obligations attendant to paternity. See Ferguson , 940 A.2d at 1239 . His identity was intended to remain confidential, and following the birth of the twins, Mother acted in accordance with the agreement for approximately five years at which time she filed a support action against Donor. The trial court specifically found that Mother and Donor had formed a binding oral contract to release Donor from parental obligations in exchange for his participation in conception; however, it voided the contract reasoning a parent cannot bargain away children's right to support, as allowing such agreement would violate public policy. See id. at 1241 . This Court disagreed that enforcing such an agreement violated public policy, particularly in the face of the evolving role played by alternative reproductive technologies in contemporary American society. Id. at 1245 . The focus of our analysis was the enforceability of what was determined to be a binding oral contract. Our reasoning, in part, follows.  [W]e cannot agree with the lower courts that the agreement here at issue is contrary to the sort of manifest, widespread public policy that generally animates the court's determination that a contract is unenforceable. The absence of a legislative mandate coupled to the constantly evolving science of reproductive technology and the other considerations highlighted above illustrates the very opposite of unanimity with regard to the legal relationships arising from sperm donation, whether anonymous or otherwise. This undermines any suggestion that the agreement at issue violates a dominant public policy or obvious ethical standards sufficient to warrant the invalidation of an otherwise binding agreement. Id. at 1248 (internal citations omitted). We found it noteworthy that but for the agreement between Donor and Mother, the children at the center of the issue would not have come into being. Id. Thus, we concluded that the agreement obviating Donor of his legal parental rights and obligations was indeed enforceable. Id. More recently, the Superior Court addressed establishing parentage by contract in the context of a surrogacy arrangement where the intended mother was not biologically related to the resulting child in In re Baby S. In that case, S.S. and her Husband decided to become parents, and S.S. underwent fertility treatments to achieve that end. Eventually, the couple entered into a service agreement with a company that coordinates gestational carrier arrangements, identifying S.S. and Husband as the intended parents. The agreement provided that the intended parents could terminate the agreement provided gestational carrier had not undergone the necessary procedure to produce pregnancy; in the event she had, the intended parents could still terminate the agreement, but only after confirmation the gestational carrier was not pregnant. See In re Baby S. , 128 A.3d at 298. S.S. and Husband were matched with a gestational carrier in Pennsylvania. They next entered into a service agreement with an egg donation agency, and entered into an ovum donation agreement with an anonymous egg donor providing, in part, that the Intended Mother shall enter her name as the mother and the Intended Father shall enter his name as the father on the birth certificate of any Child born from such Donated Ova.... Donor understands that the Intended Parents shall be conclusively presumed to be the legal parents of any Child conceived pursuant to this Agreement. Id. at 299-300 (citations omitted). Following the selection of the egg donor, the couple entered into a gestational contract with gestational carrier providing the intended parents were to assume legal responsibility for any child born pursuant to the agreement and that intended mother wished to be the mother of a child who was biologically related to intended father. See id. The gestational carrier became pregnant with an embryo created from Husband's sperm and the anonymous egg donor's egg. S.S. expressed gratitude and largely financed the procedure, and she and Husband attended the twenty-week ultrasound. Id. However, prior to the child's birth, S.S. refused to sign the necessary paperwork to have her named on the child's birth certificate because she and Husband were experiencing marital problems. While pregnant, the gestational carrier sought a court order declaring S.S. and Husband to be the legal parents of the child. In the meantime, Baby S. was born, and gestational carrier was named as the mother, and no name was listed for the father. Husband took custody of Baby S. S.S. filed a response and new matter arguing the gestational carrier contract was unenforceable. Following hearings, the trial  court entered an order declaring S.S. and Husband as the legal parents, and resolving other ancillary matters. Id. at 301. S.S. appealed to the Superior Court arguing inter alia, the legislature has evidenced its reluctance to sanction surrogacy contracts in the Commonwealth by declining to enact laws recognizing their validity; Pennsylvania provides only two mechanisms to parentage, biology and adoption, and neither situation applies to surrogacy agreements; the Court cannot authorize a new means by which legal parentage is established, and the contract violates public policy by creating a parent/child relationship without an adoption or judicial oversight. See id. at 303. Drawing largely from our decision in Ferguson , the court concluded that S.S. failed to demonstrate the surrogacy contract was against public policy. See id. at 306. The court disagreed with the position of S.S. that the lack of legislative direction regarding surrogacy agreements implies disapproval. Rather, the court reasoned, the absence of a legislative mandate one way or the other 'undermines any suggestion that the agreement at issue violates a dominant public policy... Id. The court acknowledged, as this Court did in Ferguson , that case law from the past decade reflects a growing acceptance of alternative reproductive arrangements in the Commonwealth. Id. Finally, the court expressly disagreed with S.S.'s assertion that a biological relationship or formal adoption are the only ways to attain the status of a legal parent in Pennsylvania: Further, the Adoption Act is not the exclusive means by which an individual with no genetic connection to a child can become the legal parent; and nothing in the Adoption Act evinces a dominant public policy against the enforcement of gestational contracts. The legislature has taken no action against surrogacy agreements despite the increase in common use along with a [Department of Health] policy to ensure the intended parents acquire the status of legal parents in gestational carrier arrangements. Absent an established public policy to void the gestational carrier contract at issue, the contract remains binding and enforceable against [S.S.]. Id. at 306 (citation omitted). It is beyond cavil that parentage is established either through a formal adoption pursuant to the Adoption Act 9 or when two persons contribute sperm and egg, respectively, either through a sexual encounter or clinical setting, and an embryo is formed that is carried to term and results in a child. However, cognizant of the increased availability of reproductive technologies to assist in the conception and birth of children, the courts are recognizing that arrangements in this latter context may differ and thus should be treated differently than a situation where a child is the result of a sexual encounter. Specifically, the willingness of persons to act as sperm donors, egg donors, and gestational carriers, is at least somewhat dependent on the extinguishment of the donor or carrier's parental claim to any resulting child and the intended parent's release of any obligation to support the child. See, e.g., In re Baby S. , 128 A.3d at 298-300 (Egg Donor and Gestational Carrier's respective contracts outlining intended parents were to be deemed legal parents). Given this, and especially in the absence of legislative guidance surrounding this intimate and sensitive undertaking, it seems obvious that contracts regarding the parental status of the biological contributors-whether one is an anonymous contributor or known to the intended parent to the  child be honored in order to prohibit restricting a person's reproductive options. See Ferguson , 940 A.2d at 1247-48 (opining, where a would-be donor cannot trust that he is safe from a future support action, he will be considerably less likely to provide his sperm to a friend or acquaintance who asks, significantly limiting a would-be mother's reproductive prerogatives. (footnote omitted) ). Likewise, the Superior Court recognized that after a child is conceived through the use of a surrogate and an egg donor, both of whom contracted away any parental rights to the child, the non-biologically related intended parent's contract to assume the role of legal parent is enforceable. In re Baby S. , 128 A.3d at 298. Consequently, there appears to be little doubt that the case law of this Commonwealth permits assumption or relinquishment of legal parental status, under the narrow circumstances of using assistive reproductive technology, and forming a binding agreement with respect thereto. 10 The courts of this Commonwealth, when faced with the issue and without legislative guidance, have expressly declined to void such contracts as against public policy. However, this narrow judicial recognition of legal parentage by contract-where a child is born with the assistance of a donor who relinquishes parental rights and/or a non-biologically related person assumes legal parentage-does not afford C.G. the relief she seeks. There was no dispute that C.G. was not party to a contract or identified as an intended-parent when J.H. undertook to become pregnant through intrauterine insemination. Therefore, she is clearly not a parent under any bases that have been recognized by our jurisprudence. 11  C.G. contends our case law stands for the broad proposition that parentage can be established by intent in situations where a child is born with the aid of assistive reproductive technology. It does not. The jurisprudence in this Commonwealth has declined to void contracts involving surrogacy and/or the donation of sperm or ova recognizing a separate mechanism by which legal parentage may be obtained (or relinquished). The facts of C.G.'s case do not place her into this narrow class of cases where legal parent rights and responsibilities have been relinquished or assumed via contract. 12 C.G. also points to recent decisions in Vermont and Massachusetts to support her intent-based approach. In Sinnott v. Peck, --- Vt. ----, 180 A.3d 560 (2017), the Vermont Supreme Court addressed whether a person who is not biologically related to a child, has not adopted a child, and is not married to the child's parent may be the legal parent of the child. In that case, Mother had a one-year-old child, whom she had adopted, when she began her relationship with Partner. When Mother's child was two years old, Mother and Partner jointly decided to adopt another child from Guatemala, where Mother's first child was born. The couple sought to adopt using the same agency Mother had used to facilitate her first adoption; however the agency did not permit same-sex parent adoption. Mother presented herself as the adoptive parent, and ultimately, the  second child, M.P., was brought home to Vermont in February 2006 and lived as a family unit together with the couple until 2010. See Sinnott , 180 A.3d at 561-63 . Following the couple's separation, the family division dismissed Partner's petition to establish parentage based on her assertion that she was the intended mother of both children. Id. at 563 . The Vermont Supreme Court affirmed the decision with respect to the older child, but concluded the family division erred with respect to the child the parties mutually agreed to adopt. It reasoned that its past case law has created a legal framework in which parental status is viewed in the absence of marriage, civil union, or biological or adoptive relationship with the child in a narrow class of cases in which the parents intended to bring a child into their family and raise the child together, and did in fact do. Id. at 563 (footnote omitted). As we have expressed, our case law has acknowledged a much narrower framework for establishing parentage in the absence of adoption, biology, or a presumption attendant to marriage, and the facts of C.G.'s case do not fit into such a paradigm. 13 Similarly, C.G.'s reliance on Massachusetts's case law is inapposite to her claim. By statute, Massachusetts, unlike Pennsylvania, provides a presumption that a man is the father of a child born out of wedlock if he jointly, with the mother received the child into their home and openly held out the child as their child. Partanen v. Gallagher , 475 Mass. 632 , 59 N.E.3d 1133 , 1135 (2016). In Partanen , the undisputed facts were that two women were in a committed relationship and jointly undertook to conceive and have children via in vitro fertilization. The couple welcomed two children. Ultimately, the parties separated and the non-biologically related party sought to be declared the presumptive parent. The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts concluded that the statute may be applied in a gender-neutral manner despite the gendered terms it employed and may be construed to apply to children born to same-sex couples, even though at least one member of the couple may well lack biological ties to the children. Id. at 1138 (footnote omitted). The instant case is not one where a statutory presumption would be bestowed on a similarly-situated male based on cohabitation in the absence of marriage, and as highlighted throughout, the factual findings of the trial court determined that C.G. did not jointly participate in Child's conception and hold him out as her own. Accordingly, this case does not provide this Court with a factual basis on which to further expand the definition of the term parent under Section 5324(1). 14