Rich Zeoli Talks To Lesbian Couple's Lawyer About Custody Dispute With Sperm Donor

By Rich Zeoli

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- On Talk Radio 1210 WPHT, Rich Zeoli talked to John Keating, the lawyer for a lesbian couple who is being sued by their sperm donor for parenting time with their son.

Keating explained that contradictory laws on the books complicate matters in cases like this.

"These donor agreements in New Jersey, and in many states, they won't be upheld in court because the courts look at it as a 'best interest of the child' issue where they don't want parents to be able to, unilaterally, just give up their parental rights. Now there's an exception in New Jersey, that's the artificial insemination statute, where, if you involve a physician in the process, then you can have the donor not have parental rights...Our case is, sort of, in the middle where there's not a lot of precedent in New Jersey. There's precedent in New Jersey that says the doctor had to be involved, not necessarily that the doctor had to perform the actual procedure. In our case, we had a doctor consulted."

He said the couple is trying to do things the right way and should be able to raise their family according to the contractual agreement.

"They set out to start a family, a "traditional family" of two parents and children and nobody wants to share custody of their children with someone that lives somewhere else and that they don't feel should be part of the child's life, especially when they contracted with the person and the person understood he wasn't going to be a part of the child's life. He was going to be a sperm donor and that he wasn't going to have parental rights."

Keating hopes this case serve as a warning for other couples pursing the sperm donor option.

"The couple wanted to make sure that their story is heard because they want other people to not fall into the same legal traps that they fell in to. Our position is that the law is on our side and we hope that the appellate division will agree with us...The safer route is to make sure a doctor performs the procedure."