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Full-Text Articles in Law
Parent Zero, Jessica Feinberg
Parent Zero, Jessica Feinberg
Faculty Publications
When a child is born, the law makes a critical determination regarding who will be recognized as the child’s legal parent(s). This determination carries immense importance both for children and for individuals who are, or seek to be, identified as legal parents. Essential rights, protections, and obligations attach to a legally recognized parent-child relationship, and in the vast majority of cases an individual who is recognized at birth as a child’s legal parent will retain that status permanently. The determination of the child’s first legal parent historically has been a straightforward one, and this largely remains true today outside of …
The Boundaries Of Multi-Parentage, Jessica Feinberg
The Boundaries Of Multi-Parentage, Jessica Feinberg
Faculty Publications
Multi-parentage has arrived. In recent years, a growing number of courts and legislatures have recognized that a child may have more than two legal parents. A number of significant societal, medical, and legal developments have contributed to the trend toward multi-parentage recognition. The traditional family structure of a married different-sex couple and their biological children currently represents only a minority of U.S. families. Stepparents, non-marital partners of legal parents, and extended family members often play a significant role in children’s lives, and it has become increasingly common for same-sex couples to welcome children into their families. In addition, advancements in …
After Marriage Equality: Dual Fatherhood For Married Male Same-Sex Couples, Jessica Feinberg
After Marriage Equality: Dual Fatherhood For Married Male Same-Sex Couples, Jessica Feinberg
Faculty Publications
In most states, married male same-sex couples who conceive children via gestational surrogacy using sperm from one member of the couple and donor ova must pursue adoption in order to establish legal parentage for the member of the couple who is not genetically related to the child. This is because only a minority of jurisdictions have surrogacy laws that recognize the non-biological intended parent as a legal parent in this situation, and across the United States cisgender male same-sex couples are excluded from the longstanding non-adoptive marriage-based avenues of establishing parentage currently available to both different-sex couples and female same-sex …