Can sperm donors sign their rights away to being fathers?

California legislators are hoping to make resolving the tricky issue of parental rights as easy as filling out a form. Want to make sure a sperm donor can’t claim to be a father? Check here. And vice versa. Or at least that’s the hope of the “Modern Family Act.” But can you really check a box to sign away your rights to a child? Perhaps, but it’s probably not going to be that easy. These days, the increasing prevalence of sperm donors, egg donors and even surrogate mothers often result in thorny legal battles over who is really the parent. The bill, introduced by San Francisco Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D), was inspired in part by the high-profile legal battle involving “Lost Boys” actor Jason Patric, who helped a former girlfriend have a child through artificial insemination, using his sperm. The problems is: Patric claims to have developed a father-like relationship with the boy, and he wants parental rights to the child. Last week, a California appeals court upheld his ability to claim those rights. The bad news for people like Patric’s former girlfriend, Danielle Schreiber, is that California’s new proposed law might not actually have changed the outcome of this case, according to Georgetown Law Professor Jeffrey Shulman. “The bottom line is that a written agreement still may not work if the sperm donor is encouraged to form a parent-like relationship with the child,” Shulman said. “There are constitutional law issues, federal constitutional law issues and a line of cases that grant biological fathers right to their children if they have acted like fathers.” Carlos Alcala, a spokesman for Ammiano, says that the bill isn’t intended to resolve all parental rights questions, but it might prevent some painful legal battles in many cases. Article: 20th May 2014 www.washingtonpost.com Read more about being a known sperm donor at www.prideangel.com