This thought-provoking guest post is authored by 2L and current Family Law student Jackie Aranibar:
Baby Stetson’s birth was a miracle. Ashleigh and Bliss Coulter are a married couple from Texas. When they decided to grow their family they sought the help of a fertility specialist. Little did the couple know that they were about to make medical history.
Dr. Kathy Doody and Dr. Kevin Doody work for CARE Fertility. Together, they came up with an alternative method to traditional in vitro fertilization (IVF) called Reciprocal Effortless IVF. Traditional IVF transpires when one egg and one sperm are fertilized in an incubator in the lab. In this case, however, Bliss Coulter’s eggs were fertilized with donor sperm in the chamber of an INVOcell device and then placed back into Bliss’s cervix. The INVOcell device remained in Bliss’s cervix for five days until the fertilized egg became an embryo. It was then removed from Bliss and frozen. When Ashleigh Coulter’s uterus was ready, the embryo was transferred and implanted, and she became pregnant with the same child. Ashleigh carried the baby and gave birth to Baby Stetson in the summer of 2018.
Reciprocal Effortless IVF is significantly cheaper than traditional IVF because the couple does not have to pay for the use of an incubator. Some bioethics centers raise concerns that there could be harm caused to the embryo in and throughout the transfer process. At this time there are no scientific studies pointing to any increased harm to a child born as a result of Reciprocal Effortless IVF. Christian bioethicists warn, however, that this “is not a routine reproductive intervention. Nor is it medically necessary. It is not designed to cure any disease or protect the health of either mother or child. [Rather,] it is medical experimentation upon a future child, without the ethical safeguards put in place to protect human subjects of research.”
Another aspect to consider with this medical advancement is who would be the legal parents of Baby Stetson? Will he have two moms only? Does he really need a dad? Texas law may or may not be on point with this new technology, but under current Virginia law, Baby Stetson’s mom would most likely be Ashleigh only because she is the woman who gestated the baby, and there are no provisions for two moms under Virginia Code § 20-158 (even if one is genetic and carried the child for several days). Furthermore, Virginia code does not have a statute addressing a same sex couple as legal parents of a child. There is, however, a current legislative proposal (HB1979) before the Virginia Legislature that could change that and would allow both Ashleigh and Bliss to be the legal parents of Baby Stetson. Currently, this bill has passed the House and has been referred to the Senate. As of now, Virginia’s legislative session will conclude on February 23, 2019, so check back then for an update!
Until then, new reproductive technology will continue to push the boundaries of personhood and parentage challenging traditional notions of the family. Finding where personal responsibility meets parenthood may be a key, along with remembering that this should be, essentially, all about Baby Stetson.
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