Surrogate-Born Baby’s Very Life at Center of Legal Fight
December 21, 2017
A baby boy born Thursday morning at Medical City Dallas is at the center of a custody dispute between the biological parents, the surrogate who carried the child, and now Dallas County and the state of Texas.
Attorneys for the surrogate, a woman from Collin County who’s successfully served as a surrogate twice before, said she agreed to carry the child for a couple from out of state. But at 16 weeks of pregnancy, doctors discovered the baby had a heart problem.
The surrogate and the biological parents were reportedly informed the child would need life-saving surgery within three to four days of birth after the unborn baby was diagnosed with hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS). HLHS is a birth defect where the left side of the heart is critically underdeveloped and unable to effectively pump blood to the body.
The surrogate said the biological parents informed her in July that because of the diagnosis they didn’t want her to carry the baby to term and demanded she have an abortion, which she refused. At that time, the surrogate said, the biological parents discontinued covering her medical costs.
By: Kevin Reece, Jobin Panicker
SOURCE: wfaa.com
