Court Opinion

ID: 9734347
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 17:32:23.21621+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:26:48.076814
License: Public Domain

Murphy, J.
(concurring). I agree that the Legislature has a compelling governmental interest sufficient to justify its intrusion into the plaintiffs’ rights to procreate in the surrogacy context. Further, I concur in the result reached by the majority opinion in this case, in view of how the Legislature originally drafted the Surrogate Parenting Act, MCL 722.851 et seq.; MSA 25.248(151) et seq. I write separately, however, because I am concerned that this decision might be construed to suggest that the Surrogate Parenting Act, as currently enacted, does not prohibit surrogacy agreements for compensation unless the birth mother agrees to relinquish her parental rights.
At the time of the trial court’s decision in this matter, §3(i) of the act, MCL 722.853(i); MSA 25.248(153)(i), defined a "surrogacy parentage contract” as consisting of an agreement for (1) conception or surrogate gestation and (2) voluntary relinquishment of parental rights. As noted in the majority opinion, however, the Legislature has since amended § 3(i) of the act, through the enactment of 1990 PA 190, to provide additionally a presumption that every surrogacy agreement in *445which a female agrees to insemination by a person other than her husband, or in which a female agrees to surrogate gestation, includes a provision that the birth mother will relinquish her parental rights.
On the basis of this amendatory language, I would no longer say, even in the context of this preamendment case, that the Legislature intended that a surrogacy contract that does not contain the element of relinquishment of parental rights by the birth mother is neither void and unenforceable under § 5 of the act, MCL 722.855; MSA 25.248(155), nor unlawful and prohibited by § 9 of the act, MCL 722.859; MSA 25.248(159), when entered into for compensation. Rather, I would simply hold in the context of this preamendment case that at the time of the trial court’s decision a contract, agreement, or arrangement that did not include the element of relinquishment of parental rights by the birth mother did not meet the statutory definition of "surrogate parentage contract” as originally defined by the Legislature. I would therefore conclude in the context of this case that, contrary to plaintiffs’ challenge, the statute as originally drafted was not void for vagueness. Kolender v Lawson, 461 US 352, 357; 103 S Ct 1855; 75 L Ed 2d 903 (1983); Dep’t of Social Services v Emmanuel Baptist Preschool, 434 Mich 380, 419; 455 NW2d 1 (1990); Woll v Attorney General, 409 Mich 500, 533; 297 NW2d 578 (1980).
I further agree with the majority that we need not reach plaintiffs’ equal protection arguments, but for the reason that I am unpersuaded by plaintiffs’ arguments.