New Jersey has no constitutional or legal basis for recognizing an infertile wife as the mother of her husband’s child born to a surrogate, an appeals court held Wednesday in a ruling that harkens back to the landmark Baby M. case.
The court, in Matter of the Parentage of a Child by T.J.S. and A.L.S., A-4784-09, said it did not deny the “intrinsic societal worth, emotional appeal, and compelling logic” of granting parenthood to the infertile wife. But it said adoption remains the means chosen by the Legislature to create that status.
