Manhattan Surrogate Court Judge Kristin Booth Glen has issued a decision (here) in the case of In re Sebastian. Surrogate Glen approved the issuance of a certificate of adoption to the genetic mother of a child gestated and delivered by her same-sex partner. The women are married in Holland; it was an uncontested matter.
Here’s how the New York Law Journal describes the case:
A Manhattan surrogate judge has granted an adoption petition filed on behalf of a woman whose donated egg was fertilized and then implanted in her same-sex partner.
Although the couple’s Dutch marriage is recognized by New York and the donor’s genetic relationship to the 15-month-old boy is “unquestioned,” the donor filed for adoption in order to safeguard her parental rights under federal law and in the states that do not recognize the same-sex marriage.
The issue, Surrogate Kristin Booth Glen wrote in Matter of Sebastian is whether adoption is appropriate and permissible when the petitioner was not only legally married to the child’s mother at conception and birth, but in fact is the child’s genetic mother. * * *
The surrogate concluded that adoption may not be a perfect solution, but it is the best one.
For the full NYLJ article, see here.
-Bridget Crawford
