How Do We Define Family

1
How Do We Define Family

• The Case of Baby M

2
The Participants

• William and Elizabeth Stern
• Richard and Mary Beth Whitehead
• Baby M Sara Elizabeth Whitehead/Melissa
  Elizabeth Stern

3
The Agreement Mary Beth

• Mary Beth agreed to be artificially inseminated
  and to form no parent-child relationship with
  the baby. She agreed that she would, upon
  delivery of the child surrender her parental
  rights to William Stern
• Other abortion, testing, risks

4
The Agreement William Stern

• Agreed to pay Mary Beth 10,000 as compensation
  for services and expenses payable only upon
  surrender of a live infant.

5
Timeline of Events

• March 27, 1986 Baby M was born Mary Beth turns
  down 10,000 and takes the baby home
• March 30, 1986 The Sterns take Baby M home
• March 31, 1986 Mary Beth takes the baby back
• April 12, 1986 Sterns visit baby
• May 5, 1986 Sterns get court order
• July 15, 1986 Mary Beth threatens William Stern
• July 28, 1986 Mary Beth hospitalized
• July 31, 1986 Baby taken into custody
• January 5, 1987 Trial begins

6
Baby M Today

• Melissa Stern, a junior at George Washington
  University in Washington, D.C., responded by
  phone to two e-mails requesting comment. A
  religion major and sorority member, she recalled
  how strange it was to have the Baby M case come
  up in her bioethics class. She aspires to become
  a minister, and she says she is open to having
  children someday.
• But she does not want to talk about how being
  Baby M has affected her life. She said that she
  decided to speak despite the wishes of her
  parents, who have guarded their privacy closely.
  When she says my parents and my family, she
  is talking about William and Elizabeth Stern.
  Legally, they are her parents now A source with
  firsthand knowledge of the case confirmed that
  when she turned eighteen, Melissa Stern initiated
  the process of allowing Elizabeth Stern to adopt
  her, which involved terminating Whitehead Goulds
  parental rights.
• I love my family very much and am very happy to
  be with them, Melissa Stern says, referring to
  the Sterns. Im very happy I ended up with them.
  I love them, theyre my best friends in the whole
  world, and thats all I have to say about it.
• -Excerpt from New Jersey Monthly Magazine, 2007

7
Other Cases

• Rights of Sperm Donors
• Parental rights?
• Privacy rights?
• Baby Jessica