Baby M

This case involved a custody dispute between a father and a mother. The father, William Stern, had contracted with the mother, Mary Beth Whitehead, to bear him a child through artificial insemination. The contract, in part, provided that she would receive a fee of $10,000 upon terminating her parental rights and giving up the child to him. A lower court held that the contract was enforceable and that the custody of the child, known as Baby M, should be awarded to Mr. Stern on the basis of the child’s best interests. Mrs. Whitehead appealed, asking the court to determine "surrogacy contracts" unenforceable and void, to reinstate her parental rights and to grant her custody of Baby M. The Supreme Court ruled: 1) that giving money to a woman to induce her to surrender her child for adoption was unconstitutional; 2) that the state’s adoption laws permit irrevocable surrender of a child only after birth; and 3) that the law requires proof of abandonment or unfitness prior to termination of parental rights or adoption without consent. [Source: In Re Baby M, 217 N.J. Super. 313 (1987).]

Principles & Concepts: beneficence, human dignity, respect for persons, common good, respect for autonomy, justice.

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