"Mums fight in custody dispute"

Mums fight in custody dispute

The Weekend Australian 2011 12 31 – 2012 01 01 Page 10

ORLANDO, FLORIDA: They fell in love, moved in together and had a baby girl.  Now they are fighting over who should raise the child.  But unlike most couples, they are two women.  One donated the egg. The other had it implanted into her womb and carried the child to term.

So which one is the mother?

The woman who bore the child - and who had run away to Queensland from Florida with the child before returning home - says she is.

A local judge, writing that it broke his heart to say so, ruled that she's right.  Under Florida law, a woman who gives birth is the mother.  Last week, however, a state appeals court overturned his decision, saying the other mother has parental rights, too.

The appeals court ruled that the US and Florida constitutions trump Florida law and give par- enting rights to both women.  State law, the court said, has not kept up with the times.

Although a growing number of families have two parents who are the same sex, few involve children whose chromosomes come from one woman but who were carried to term by another.

A child raised in this environment shouldn't be forced to give up a parent

NANCY POLlKOFF U.S. LAW PROFESSOR

It is an important decision with a wider implication, said Nancy Polikoff, a law professor at American University Washington College of Law and an expert on gay-and-Iesbian family law.

"Any ruling that supports the right of a same-sex couple ... is important for its willingness to recognise that these families exist and a child raised in this environment shouldn't be forced to give up a parent," she said.

In this case, the same-sex couple - both policewomen had been in a committed relationship for 11 years, according to court records.  One is infertile, so she bore the egg grown by the other - from an anonymous sperm donor who had waived his parental rights.

The couple gave the baby a hyphenated version of their last names, but the birth certificate bore only the name of the woman who carried her to term.

The women split up when the little girl was two years old.  A year and a half later, the birth mother disappeared with the child, leaving the country without telling her former partner where they had gone.  Eventually, the egg donor tracked them down in Queensland.  They have since returned to Florida.