Sperm Donor May Have To Pay Child Support

[ma_guy]

From today's news:

Sperm Donor May Have To Pay Child Support
Child Now 18 Years Old

POSTED: 11:51 pm EST December 3, 2007


WESTBURY, N.Y. -- A sperm donor may have to pay child support after the mother's lawyer argued that the man has sent birthday cards and otherwise acted like a father to the teenage child.

A Nassau County Family Court judge recently blocked the man from seeking a paternity test. The man's lawyer, Deborah Kelly, said the Nov. 16 ruling sets the stage for a magistrate to determine how much her client may owe in support.

The man donated sperm to a co-worker and her female partner in the late 1980s. He has testified that they verbally agreed he wouldn't have any rights in the child's upbringing. But he put his name on the child's birth certificate, sent letters signed "Dad," and has talked to the child on the phone.

The child is now 18. The parties in the case are anonymous because of privacy concerns.

http://www.thebostonchannel.com/family/14766455/detail.html

So this woman waits until it comes time for the kid to go to college before she seeks suport? Is this some sort of new scholarship program?

Just another warning for potential donors....

 

[Cap’n AMatrixca]

I think we discussed a story here not long ago where the woman stole her ex's semen and sued for support...

 

[Ishmael]

First article on the subject I posted was in 2002. It was a UK case and I see there's another in the news recently. Amazing.

Ishmael

 

[Cap’n AMatrixca]

I don't wanna grow up,
I wanna be a Toys "r" Mom, kids...

 

[pabloback]

exact same story in todays paper about an english couple , check the sun online
probably in the times too

 

[emap]

Ummm yeah, I do beleive this is why lawyers and accountants always tell you to get it in writing.

 

[Cap’n AMatrixca]

Agents tell you to get it on film...

 

[Ishmael]

Ummm yeah, I do beleive this is why lawyers and accountants always tell you to get it in writing.

Wouldn't make a bit of difference. Lawyers and accountants would be a waste of time and money.

You and I cannot enter into a contract to deprive a third party (the child) of their due. It's just that simple.

Ishmael

 

[pink]

Wow, that is tricky. i can see both sides.

 

[ma_guy]

Wow, that is tricky. i can see both sides.

Really? Can you explain her side of it?

I mean, she's a lesbian who convinced someone to donate sperm. Most women would scream that their child's father wasn't "involved" at all if he only sent a birthday card every year and made occassional phone calls.

And 18 years later she comes looking for $$???

 

[pink]

Really? Can you explain her side of it?

I mean, she's a lesbian who convinced someone to donate sperm. Most women would scream that their child's father wasn't "involved" at all if he only sent a birthday card every year and made occassional phone calls.

And 18 years later she comes looking for $$???

Well, i see his side more than hers actually. Maybe it is about all money and she just needs help getting the child through college. i am a single mother. Maybe, now she's desperate. He should have put everything in writing.

 

[Cap’n AMatrixca]

Getting through college is a red herring. Anyone can go to college with grants, loans, a part time job, and the same level of parental support they have always gotten. So that should play no part in the discussion.

He had no right to access, so she must have allowed it. I don't see how that makes him fiscally responsible, just human.

 

[ma_guy]

Well, i see his side more than hers actually. Maybe it is about all money and she just needs help getting the child through college. i am a single mother. Maybe, now she's desperate. He should have put everything in writing.

She's still with her partner. It seems to me that she and her partner should be the people responsible for their finances. I'd be interested in knowing if her partner has a child support order. The partner has been living with the child for the last 18 years. She has a whole lot more of a parental relationship with teh child than the donor does.

Putting it in writing doesn't work in the majority of states. The courts have pretty much all ruled that the "needs of the child" overrule any agreement between the biological parents (WA is the only state I know of where that isn't the case.)

I'm a single father. The last thing I'd do is go after some 3rd party who made it possible for me to be a father for support. IMO, the state legislatures need to step up and provide donors with protection from people coming back years later looking for supprt payments.

 

[HB1965]

I'm sorry, but I can't help thinking that they were plotting something on this guy from the beginning. Why say that he would have no parental rights, and then let him be the father of record AND allow the child to consider him his/her father? Yeah I think they knew what they were doing when they asked him to be the father.

They were the ones that wanted this baby. They were the ones claiming full responsibility for it. They need to pony up and pay for college or get the kid to work his/her way through school, not the sperm donor.

 

[bluntforcemama]

According to the man's testimony, in the late 1980s he was a physician at the same Nassau County hospital where the child's mother was a resident. After learning the woman and her female partner wanted to have a baby, the man donated his sperm and the woman gave birth July 26, 1989. The man, married at the time, agreed he would not have any rights or benefits in rearing the child, but the oral agreement never was put in writing, according to court documents.

But he took the unusual step of allowing his name to appear on the child's birth certificate because he thought it was in the child's "best interests that he would have an identity when he grew older," he said in court documents.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2004046062_sperm01.html

Yeah, it's really shitty that these women are pursuing legal action only when they need money (this is why it's making national headlines), but the man should've put some stuff in writing before he donated his sperm to the couple as a precaution.

 

[ksmybuttons]

I think we discussed a story here not long ago where the woman stole her ex's semen and sued for support...

How does a woman "steal" sperm?


It will be interesting to see how the case comes out. Sounds like the guy acted as more than a sperm donor.

 

[Hester]

How does a woman "steal" sperm?


It will be interesting to see how the case comes out. Sounds like the guy acted as more than a sperm donor.

out of a condom.

 

[ksmybuttons]

out of a condom.

But did he fuck her?

 

[Moanique]

I'm sorry, but I can't help thinking that they were plotting something on this guy from the beginning. Why say that he would have no parental rights, and then let him be the father of record AND allow the child to consider him his/her father? Yeah I think they knew what they were doing when they asked him to be the father.

They were the ones that wanted this baby. They were the ones claiming full responsibility for it. They need to pony up and pay for college or get the kid to work his/her way through school, not the sperm donor.

I agree.