The split decision of our Supreme Court in the Matter of the Parentage of a Child by T.J.S. and A.L.S., A130-10, is troublesome. It arises out of the Uniform Parentage Act, N.J.S.A. 9:17-41, which provides the ways by which a man or a woman may establish a parent-child relationship: (1) genetic contribution; (2) giving birth; and (3) adoption.
However, the act goes on to prescribe that when a husband gives his consent, and his wife is inseminated artificially “with semen donated by a man not her husband, the husband is treated in law as if he were the natural father of a child thereby conceived.” By the terms of the statute, the semen donor “is treated in law as if he were not the father of [the] child … and [has] no rights or duties stemming from the conception of [the] child.” N.J.S.A. 9:17-44 (a).
