Babies For Sale

Interesting. Despite the fact that in America, both biological parents must consent when a child is adopted, (it really saves on all the paperwork required in the appeals process) just over two years ago, a single mother sold her infant daughter to the highest bidder in South Carolina, a family by the name of Capobianco. The little girl's father, a Native American in Oklahoma, was unaware that his ex girlfriend was planning to give their daughter up for adoption, and although he was not part of his daughter's life, was not in agreement with the adoption, so he challenged it. The reason he challenged it had to do with abuses of Native American family units by American culture in the past. The Supreme Court ruled against the Capobiancos and awarded sole custody to the father. But now, the Capobiancos are appealing, because they feel that a text message shortly after the child's birth between the biological parents somehow constitutes a termination of the father's rights! This is certainly a WTF moment in American legal history if ever there was one! Since when does a TEXT MESSAGE absolve a parent of parental responsibility?

In view of last week's sperm donor/child support case from Kansas, involving a lesbian couple who thought that a de facto "contract" wherein the non-state-sanctioned "sperm donor" was not responsible for any progeny produced forthwith, (the parties were wrong....any such contract would need to be recognized by a family law court) it seems, with the advent of court ordered child support for the Kansas sperm donor, that a text message simply might not be enough to waive parental responsibility. That said, the Capobiancos probably, and hopefully, will not get the child back. But then, one never knows. Dr. Timothy Monahan and his wife, Jennifer, of Missouri, bought a kidnapped little girl from a black market adoption agency in Guatemala several years ago, and despite pleas from Guatemalan courts, the revocation of the fake birth certificate, the revocation of the little girl's passport, and revocation of their own passports, inasmuch as Guatemala is concerned, anyway, the Monahans are planning to keep the little girl they bought unlawfully and the United States will not force them to give her back to her parents. So.....it's hard to say which way the decision concerning the Capobiancos and the child of whom they took possession without her father's consent will go.

 

Jennifer Monahan, of Missouri. Her only sentiment when discovering that she had taken someone else's child was probably a giant "thankyou" to the black market middleman.

Being A Sperm Donor In Kansas

Today, in the news, we have here in Kansas a man, by the name of William Marotta, who answered an ad placed on Craigslist by Jennifer Schreiner and Angela Bauer, a lesbian couple who wished to bring up a child together. They needed a paternal parental unit, or, a sperm sperm donor. Sperm donors, as many of us know, are not hard to find.......look in any singles bar. Okay, that observation does rinse the romance and mystique out of this sort of thing, but Marotta, either by turkey baster or by some other means, did, in fact, father a child three years ago with Jennifer Schreiner.

Fast forward to now. Jennifer and Angela are having financial difficulites, and applied to Social Services for assistance. Over the course of filing the application, Social Services was required to determine exactly which adults were responsible for the three year old child. Jennifer Schreiner is, of course, the mother, and as such, is claiming that a de facto contract she made with William Marotta and Angela Bauer absolves him of responsibility and confers it to Angela Bauer. While Angela Bauer undoubtedly cares for the child just as much as she would if she could actually be the father, and lives with the child, the "sperm donation" was not done under the auspices of a clinic, which would have protected William Marotta's anonymity; nor did any court procedures take place to legally confer responsibility for the child to another adult. So......William Marotta, along with technically being the child's father, is also legally the child's father, and therefore liable for child support by Kansas law.

In addition to all of the above dysfuntion, we also have Shannon Minter, of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, feeling miffed because she thinks this will have a repercussion on the rights of gay or lesbian couples in the future. This line of reasoning is flawed. Had William Marotta donated sperm through a bona fide clinic, medically and legally equipped, he would not be the legal parental paternal unit. Or, at the very least, had he moved family law court in Kansas to legally confer guardianship of his biological child to Angela Bauer, and had she legally adopted the child, Kansas would not insist that he pay child support. It's actually quite easy to understand, if one wishes to grow up and be responsible. This is not a gay rights matter at all, this is about responsibility for a child.

Here's one more thing: that three year old deserves a pair of adults (gender is not all-encompassing here) who have either parental rights or legal guardianship; not a bona fide mother, an unknown but existant father who does not understand his parental responsibilities in this case, and another adult who does not truly have rights or parental authority in places like school, the hospital, court, or other countries..... not that this child could get a passport to travel to other countries without showing the sperm doner/father's information to a passport agent......but all kinds of situations wherein a child might need actual parents or guardians can come up over the course of a childhood. What is disappointing here is that none of the so-called adults in this child's life thought about the child, and the child's needs, before playing house and playing sperm donor.