Court Opinion

ID: 9724796
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 11:14:17.620143+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:25:06.217999
License: Public Domain

STRANKMAN, J.
—I concur in the opinion and the judgment because I believe that this result is the most rational outcome attainable given the existent position of the parties. While the legal theories that are used to reach this result are consistent with current California law, I am not satisfied that our legal tools are the best that can be designed for handling this evermore prevalent social practice. In particular the use of contract theory in this area is awkward and clumsy. Children are not commodities and should not have their fates decided on the basis of commercial contract theory.
Further I wish to distance myself from any implication that the result in this case is an implicit approval of the procedures that resulted in the birth of Matthew. For my part I would have no hesitancy in finding surrogate parent contracts illegal under current California law were we required to reach that issue. Recent legislative activity indicates that soon a court may have to determine whether a yet to be enacted statute is constitutional. This opinion explicitly and wisely does not reach these troublesome issues. In this area *1275good rhetoric comes easier than wise policy. Our opinion shuns the opportunity for the former and leaves for the Legislature the formulation of the latter.
Petitions for a rehearing were denied August 28, 1991, and August 29, 1991, and appellant’s petition for review by the Supreme Court was denied November 21, 1991.