Baby M (born March 27, 1986) was the pseudonym used in the case In re Baby M, 537 A.2d 1227, 109 N.J. 396 (N.J. 1988) for the infant whose legal parentage was in question. In re Baby M was a custody case that became the first American court ruling on the validity of surrogacy.

The 1985 case of Baby M was a contentious one that made surrogacy the center of many issues; this included the legality of surrogate contracts, feminism, father’s rights, and reproductive rights, to name a few.

Mar 21, 1999 · Baby M – the girl who sparked a national debate over surrogate motherhood – turns 13 on Saturday. By all accounts, she is a friendly, happy girl, unaffected by her early fame and the continuing...

The depth of their conflict about Baby M, about custody, visitation, about the goodness or badness of each of them, comes through in their telephone conversations, in which each tried to persuade the other to give up the child.

Mar 23, 2014 · The custody battle over Baby M was the first time an American court considered the legality of surrogacy. Questions over the practice linger.

Mar 2, 2016 · Now the Shrewsbury lawyer who represented surrogate mother Mary Beth Whitehead in the landmark Baby M case is back in the news, defending another woman who wants custody of the triplets she...

Dec 15, 2023 · Baby M (plaintiff) William Sterns entered into a surrogacy contract with Mary Whitehead (defendant), where she agreed to carry a child for him and his wife Elizabeth, for a fee. Following the child’s birth, Whitehead struggled emotionally …

The Whiteheads fled to Florida with Baby M. Police in Florida forcibly removed the child from her grandparent’s home and turned the child over to the Sterns. At trial, the court held that the surrogacy contract was valid, it ordered Mrs. Whitehead’s parental rights

May 16, 2017 · Baby M was a custody case that became the first American court ruling on the validity of surrogacy. William Stern entered into a surrogacy agreement with Mary Beth Whitehead, whom he and his...

Baby M was the first case decided by a state court of final jurisdiction in which the lawfulness of a surrogacy contract was addressed. States responded to the Baby M decision by passing a flurry of legislation, which fell into four classes.