Kelly: 25 years after Baby M, surrogacy questions remain unanswered
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The key elements of the March 31, 1987, ruling, which pitted Mary Beth Whitehead, a onetime bar dancer from Brick Township, against a biochemist, William Stern of Tenafly, and his wife, Elizabeth, a pediatrician, were mostly overturned a year later by the New Jersey Supreme Court.
But troubling questions raised by the case still ripple through government, courtrooms and even among the participants themselves. For many, those questions boil down to this: Does surrogacy amount to baby-selling?
The state Supreme Court restored Whitehead’s parental rights, nullified the adoption that was part of the original surrogacy contract and declared the contract itself illegal and tantamount to baby selling.
But the court stopped short of giving Whitehead a complete victory. It gave primary custody of the baby at the center of the dispute to the Sterns.
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http://www.northjersey.com/columnists/kelly/033012_Kelly_25_years_after_Baby_M_surrogacy_questions_remain_unanswered.html
