By Dan Bushell
Issuing its opinion in DMT vs. TMH, a closely watched case that drew national attention, the Supreme Court of Florida today declared that a woman has constitutionally protected rights to raise a child created by artificial insemination using her ovum, with the fertilized ovum carried and the child born by her then-committed partner, and initially raised by the woman and her former partner. Justice Pariente wrote the opinion for the Court, with Justice Polston writing a dissenting opinion in which two other justices joined.
The facts are these. DMT and TMH were in a committed lesbian relationship for about 11 years. They decided to have a child by in vitro fertilization, using TMH’s ova fertilized by donated sperm, with the fertilized ova implanted in DMT. DMT gave birth to the child and DMT and TMH raised the child together as equal parents, initially in the home they shared. DMT and TMH, who could not marry in Florida, split up about 17 months after the child was born. They initially continued to co-parent the child after the split, agreeing that the child would divide time between their homes. But things turned nasty, and DMT ran away with the child and denied TMH any contact with the child.
TMH finally found DMT in Australia. She sued DMT to establish her right to co-parent the child. The problem for TMH was that section 742.14, Florida Statutes, which deals with surrogacy, extinguishes the parental rights of egg and sperm donors to children created from their donated genetic material. The trial court found that section 742.14 was controlling, and ruled in favor of DMT, despite stating that DMT’s actions were morally reprehensible and against the interests of the child.
The Fifth District Court of Appeal (in Daytona Beach, which hears appeals from portions of central and northern Florida) reversed the trial court, holding that section 742.14 did not apply, finding TMH was not a “donor” under the statute because she did not intend to give her ova away (i.e. to “donate” it), but rather always intended to raise any child that resulted from her egg, even though she wouldn’t be carrying and giving birth to the child.
The majority of the Florida Supreme Court rejected that interpretation. It held that section 742.14 did apply, because whether someone is considered a “donor” under the statute doesn’t depend on what her intentions were, but rather only on whether
