''Ferguson v. McKiernan'' was a 2007
Pennsylvania Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania is the highest court in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's Unified Judicial System. It also claims to be the oldest appellate court in the United States, a claim that is disputed by the Massachusetts Supreme J ...
case in which, in a 3–2 decision, the court reversed a lower court ruling requiring
sperm donor
Sperm donation is the provision by a man of his sperm with the intention that it be used in the artificial insemination or other 'fertility treatment' of a woman or women who are not his sexual partners in order that they may become pregnant by hi ...
Joel McKiernan to pay
child support
Child support (or child maintenance) is an ongoing, periodic payment made by a parent for the financial benefit of a child (or parent, caregiver, guardian) following the end of a marriage or other similar relationship. Child maintenance is paid d ...
.
Factual background
Joel McKiernan met Ivonne Ferguson in May 1991, with their relationship becoming intimate several months later. In 1993, Ferguson expressed a desire to have another child. However, after finding out that her
tubal ligation
Tubal ligation (commonly known as having one's "tubes tied") is a surgical procedure for female sterilization in which the fallopian tubes are permanently blocked, clipped or removed. This prevents the fertilization of eggs by sperm and thus th ...
was irreversible, Ferguson submitted to
in vitro fertilization
In vitro fertilisation (IVF) is a process of fertilisation where an egg is combined with sperm in vitro ("in glass"). The process involves monitoring and stimulating an individual's ovulatory process, removing an ovum or ova (egg or eggs) ...
(IVF) in order to conceive another child. During this process, she asked McKiernan to deliver his sperm so that she could use it for the IVF procedure. While he was initially hesitant to do so, she convinced him by promising that she would not track him down for any child support afterwards.
Ferguson gave birth to male twins (Travis and Tyler)
on August 25, 1994. Afterwards, McKiernan mostly maintained his anonymity until Ferguson found his phone number and filed for child support in May 1999.
Decision and appeals
While both a trial and a Superior Court ruled in favor of Ferguson,
their ruling was overturned by the
Pennsylvania Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania is the highest court in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's Unified Judicial System. It also claims to be the oldest appellate court in the United States, a claim that is disputed by the Massachusetts Supreme J ...
in a 3–2 vote on December 27, 2007.
In the
majority opinion
In law, a majority opinion is a judicial opinion agreed to by more than half of the members of a court. A majority opinion sets forth the decision of the court and an explanation of the rationale behind the court's decision.
Not all cases have ...
(joined by Justices
Ralph Cappy
Ralph J. Cappy (August 25, 1943 – May 1, 2009) was a justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania from 1990 to 1998 and chief justice of the Court from 2003 to 2008.
Prior to joining the state Supreme Court, Cappy was named to the Allegheny Co ...
and
Ronald Castille
Ronald D. Castille (born March 16, 1944) served on the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania from 1994 to 2014 and was chief justice from 2008 to 2014. He stepped down from the court in 2014, after reaching the mandatory retirement age of 70.
He was the ...
), Justice
Max Baer Max Baer may refer to:
* Max Baer (boxer) (1909–1959), American boxing world champion
** Max Baer Jr.
Maximilian Adelbert Baer Jr. (born December 4, 1937) is an American actor, producer, comedian, and director widely known for his role as ...
upheld the validity of the verbal contract between Joel McKiernan and Ivonne Ferguson and thus held that McKiernan had no obligation to pay child support.
In his opinion, Justice Baer cited the
Uniform Parentage Act and wrote that holding sperm donors responsible for paying child support would make them less likely to donate their sperm, which in turn would limit the reproductive prerogatives of would-be mothers. Justice Baer also noted the spread of unconventional methods of sperm donation in Pennsylvania in recent years. Finally, Baer rejected the
causation argument in favor of forcing McKiernan to pay child support and pointed out that, were it not for McKiernan's actions, she would not have had any additional children unless another, anonymous donor had given sperm, and she thus would not have been entitled to any child support.
(In response to this,
UCLA
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...
law professor
A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyses and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal qualification in law and often a legal practitioner. In the Uni ...
Russell Korobkin pointed out that, if this
logic
Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the science of deductively valid inferences or of logical truths. It is a formal science investigating how conclusions follow from premises ...
was taken to the extreme, then it would mean that no children would ever be entitled to any financial support from their parents without their parents' consent since existence for these children is better than non-existence and thus these children weren't actually harmed by being brought into existence.
)
Dissents
In their dissents, Justices
Thomas Saylor
Thomas G. Saylor (born December 14, 1946) is a former chief justice and associate justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, and a former judge of the Superior Court of Pennsylvania.
A member of the Republican Party, Saylor retired from his ...
and
J. Michael Eakin argued that there is no basis in Pennsylvania public policy for the court's ruling.
In his dissent, Justice Saylor argued on
separation-of-powers grounds that any new Pennsylvania state government policy in regards to sperm donors and child support, however desirable, should come from the
Pennsylvania Legislature
The Pennsylvania General Assembly is the legislature of the U.S. commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The legislature convenes in the State Capitol building in Harrisburg. In colonial times (1682–1776), the legislature was known as the Pennsylvani ...
rather than from the Pennsylvania judiciary, with the implication that for the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to do otherwise in regards to this would be for it to overstep its designated authority.
Meanwhile, in his dissent, Justice Eakin pointed out that relying on the 2002 Uniform Parentage Act is misplaced since this act was not adopted by the Pennsylvania General Assembly (Pennsylvania Legislature).
See also
*''
Straub v. BMT by Todd''
References
{{Reflist, 30em
Child support
Sperm donation
United States reproductive rights case law
2007 in Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania state case law
2007 in United States case law