Court Makes Three Adults Pay Child Support for One Child
Jodilynn Jacob and Jennifer Shultz-Jacob had a lisenced Vermont civil union from 2002 to 2006. During that time, Jodilynn used a sperm donor to give birth two children. When the lesbian couple split up in 2006, Jodilynn took the kids with her, and a court ordered her ex-partner, Jennifer, to pay child support. Up to that point, the breakup and award of child support was nothing out of the ordinary.
Fast forward to 2009. A Pennsylvania Superior Court last month ordered the sperm donor, who lived in the state, to also pay child support for the two children. This means that three adults are legally obligated to support one child.
This situation is unique. Arthur Leonard, a professor at New York Law School, said that he's "unaware of any other state appellate court that has found that a child has, simultaneously, three adults who are financially obligated to the child’s support and are also entitled to visitation."
There's two reasons that the children ended up with more than two adults having to pay child support:
1. Penn has no law that shields sperm donors from parental responsibility. Other states have adopted the Uniform Parentage Act, which does.
2. The lesbian couple did the artificial insemination informally, at their home without any legal agreement. If they had done it instead with an agreement that spelled out the rights and obligations of the sperm donor, then a court could have enforced the agreement instead making the donor pay child support.
