In continuation of our last piece on Birth Certificates (heARTbeat June 11, 2015), we discussed Pre-Birth Orders and their importance in demonstrating parentage. A Pre-Birth Order is an order that allows you to place the Intended Parents on the birth certificate when the baby is born.
In some Pennsylvania counties, Pre-Birth Orders have been issued for same-sex couples and opposite-sex couples before the birth of a child by Gestational Carrier for the Intended Parents to be named on the birth certificate of the child born of ART and to confirm the Gestational Carrier is not a genetic parent prior to the birth of the child.
Although most of the orders issued through the Department of Health procedures have involved children who are the genetic offspring of both Intended Parents, Courts are also issuing such orders where donor eggs (from neither the Intended Mother, nor the carrier), were used for conception. Therefore, it is possible for an Intended Mother, who is not the genetic mother of the child, to be deemed the legal parent.
These pre-birth orders have also been permitted identifying both same-sex Intended Parents as the child’s legal parents or the party who is a genetic parent as the child’s sole legal parent.
Who may obtain Pre-Birth Orders:
- Married couples using their own eggs and sperm;
- Married couples using a donor;
- Unmarried couple using their own egg and sperm;
- Unmarried couple using a donor;
- Single parent; and
- Same-sex couples.
Since this procedure is not prescribed by any statute or enacted regulation, these Orders are issued on a county-to-county basis at the discretion of the Court.
heARTbeat is a publication of KingSpry’s Adoption Law and Assisted Reproductive Technology Law Practice Group. It is meant to be informational and does not constitute legal advice.
