• Home
  • News
    • Politics & Government
    • Business & Economy
    • Crime / Courts
    • Health / Medicine
  • Sports
    • High School Sports
    • Radio Iowa Poll
  • Affiliates
    • Affiliate Support Page
  • Contact Us
    • Reporters

Radio Iowa

Iowa's Radio News Network

You are here: Home / Crime / Courts / Supreme Court says contracts with surrogate mothers are legal

Supreme Court says contracts with surrogate mothers are legal

February 16, 2018 By Dar Danielson

The state Judicial Building.

The Iowa Supreme Court rules that contracts made with surrogate mothers are legal in the state.

The case involves a couple from Cedar Rapids who were nearing 50 years old when they married in 2013 and decided they wanted to have a child. They placed an online ad in 2015 and signed an agreement to have the Muscatine woman serve as the surrogate mother. Both embryos implanted in the surrogate mother took hold — but the twins were born prematurely and one died.

The surrogate mother then refused to give up the surviving baby, saying the surrogate contract was not legal in Iowa. The district court, after genetic testing, ruled the contract is enforceable, terminated the parental rights of the surrogate mother and her husband, and awarded the Cedar Rapids man permanent legal and physical custody.

On appeal, the Iowa Supreme Court upheld the district court ruling, saying there is no legal prohibition of such contracts in the state. It says the legislature exempted them from criminal liability for selling children in 1989 following extensive national publicity given the “Baby M” case in New Jersey.

The ruling terminates the rights of the surrogate mother and gives custody of the child to the Cedar Rapids father.

Here’s the ruling: Suorrgate-Contract-Ruling-PDF

 

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Filed Under: Crime / Courts, News Tagged With: children and families

Featured Stories

Governor signs child care expansion into law

Iowa seniors have until July 1 to apply for new property tax break

Smoke from distant fires creates colorful sunrise in Iowa

DOT’s Motor Vehicle Enforcement Division to merge into State Patrol

Iowa’s governor approves liability limits for trucking industry

TwitterFacebook
Tweets by RadioIowa

Radio Iowa/Baseball Coaches Association High School Poll 6/5/23

Iowa eliminated at NCAA regional

Iowa names Beth Goetz interim AD

Cyclone Trio Invited to USA Basketball U19 Training Camp

Cameron Young to compete at the John Deere Classic

More Sports

Archives

Copyright © 2023 ยท Learfield News & Ag, LLC