Lawyer: LI Sperm Donor May Have to Pay Child Support
WESTBURY, LI (1010 WINS) -- A sperm donor may have to pay child support after the mother's lawyer argued that the man has sent birthday cards and otherwise acted like a father to the teenage child, the donor's lawyer said.
A Nassau County Family Court judge recently blocked the man from seeking a paternity test. The man's lawyer, Deborah Kelly, says the Nov. 16 ruling sets the stage for a magistrate to determine how much her client may owe in support. The parties in the case are listed anonymously.
The man, a doctor, donated sperm to a hospital resident and her female partner in the late 1980s. The child was born in July 1989.
The donor and the women agreed verbally that he wouldn't have any rights in the child's upbringing, according to court documents. But he allowed his name to appear on the child's birth certificate because he felt it was in the child's best interests to have ``an identity,'' court documents say.
The man went on to have contact with the child before the child, the mother and her partner moved out of state in 1993, court documents say. Since then, the donor has spoken to the child by phone and sent money, gifts and letters signed ``Dad.''
``The fact of the matter is that he held himself out as the child's father for 18 years until he asked for DNA testing,'' said the mother's lawyer, Jeffrey Herbst.
But Kelly said her client's gestures of goodwill were being unfairly used against him.
``What's the saying? No good deed goes unpunished,'' she said.
Court rulings have varied in similar cases around the country. In Washington State, the Court of Appeals held in 2004 that a sperm donor isn't obligated to pay child support unless he and the mother have a signed contract saying as much.
But a Pennsylvania judge earlier this year held a sperm donor liable for support for the two children he helped a lesbian couple conceive, noting that the donor had spent thousands of dollars on toys and clothing for the children.
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