Surrogate Mothers

In an unprecedented case that raises new questions about the rights of surrogate mothers, an Orange County woman who agreed to carry another couple's child filed suit on Monday, claiming that she should keep the baby even though she has no genetic link to it.

A now-divorced couple who had hired a surrogate mother to bear them a baby--using anonymous donations of egg and sperm--continued their legal battle over child support Monday. In court papers, attorneys for the woman, Luanne Buzzanca of Santa Ana, told a panel of appellate judges that if they failed to find that she was the legal mother of the child--a finding that a lower court judge with jurisdiction over the case has been reluctant to make--the result would be "utter chaos."

An appeals court Monday reaffirmed a surrogate mother's parental rights but ordered a lower court to once again decide who will get primary custody of a now 4-year-old girl named Marissa. Surrogate mother Elvira Jordan and biological father Robert P. Moschetta have shared parental responsibilities since an Orange County Superior Court judge in September, 1991, granted joint custody--a landmark ruling believed to be the first of its kind.

A lawyer for an Orange County surrogate mother fighting to keep the child she is carrying cast doubt Friday on the baby's parentage. Richard C. Gilbert told a Superior Court judge that until he obtains medical proof that his client, Anna Johnson, is carrying a baby created from the egg and sperm of the purported biological parents, Mark and Crispina Calvert, he cannot be certain of the child's parentage.

The biological father of a baby girl born to a surrogate mother is "manipulative" and should be kept "on a short tether" by the court, the attorney for the baby told a judge Tuesday. As the emotional custody battle over 15-month-old Marissa Jordan Moschetta drew to a close, attorney Harold F. LaFlamme told the court during his summation that surrogate mother Elvira Jordan and the couple she bore the child for, Robert and Cynthia Moschetta, each have "suspicious motives" and could not be trusted.

In the first surrogate-parent case to reach an appellate panel, a state Court of Appeal on Wednesday denied partial custody rights to a woman who agreed to bear a child for a Napa County couple for $10,000. The court, however, refused to decide the overall legality of surrogate-parent contracts, and issued a plea to the Legislature to enact a law to cover the novel and emotionally charged issue.

A woman who wants to maintain contact with the baby she helped raise lashed out in court Wednesday, ripping the toupee off her estranged husband's head after testimony by a psychologist that she should be denied visitation rights. The outburst occurred toward the end of the first day of what has proved to be a highly emotional custody battle over a baby girl that surrogate mother Elvira Jordan bore through artificial insemination for Robert and Cynthia Moschetta.

As the Anna L. Johnson surrogate motherhood dispute heads for the 4th District Court of Appeal, the couple who hired Johnson for $10,000 say the surrogate should be treated as no more than a foster parent who cared for their embryo while they were unable to do so. In legal briefs filed Friday, attorneys for Crispina and Mark Calvert argue that Johnson, who carried a child created from their egg and sperm, should be considered the legal equivalent of a foster mother. "Assume . . .

A surrogate mother who lost an unprecedented battle to be declared a parent of the child she bore for a Tustin couple was unfairly stripped of her constitutional rights, her attorney said Wednesday as the case moved to an appeals court. "There is not a society in the world that breeds women like animals and then forcibly removes their children from them as a matter of public policy," said Richard C. Gilbert, the attorney for Anna L. Johnson.

The state Supreme Court Thursday reaffirmed a surrogate mother's parental rights by rejecting an appeal by a biological father seeking sole custody of a now 4-year-old girl named Marissa. Surrogate mother Elvira Jordan and biological father Robert P. Moschetta have shared parental responsibilities since an Orange County Superior Court judge in September, 1991, granted joint custody. But Moschetta appealed, saying his contract with Jordan gave custody to him and his now ex-wife.