Not sure you could ask for a better demonstration of the really devastating risks and pitfalls of the boutique surrogacy industry:
I just really want to underscore the sheer staggering absurdity of the situation itself, as summed up by the NBC reporter:
An Oklahoma woman has no parental rights over the son she raised for two years with her estranged wife, who has since started dating the former couple's sperm donor, a judge ruled Monday.
A normal reaction to this kind of story is:
Because there's simply nothing normal about this:
Kris Williams and Rebekah Wilson, who were legally married in June 2019, were both initially listed on the boy's birth certificate when Wilson gave birth to him in August 2019, according to court documents. The boy, referred to only as W.R.W.W. in the judge's ruling, was conceived using the sperm of Harlan Vaughn, with whom Wilson entered a "Known Sperm Donor Agreement" in September 2018.
Williams and Wilson, however, split in November 2021, and Wilson moved in with Vaughn shortly afterward, court documents state. But while Williams was on the child's birth certificate, she did not adopt him before she split with Wilson, and she has not seen him since Nov. 23, 2021.
So this woman helped raise, and presumably bonded with, the little boy — who also presumably bonded with her — and now both have been separated from each other. That sort of trauma is hard on an adult. It's extremely traumatic for a child.
One rather thinks that the child's well-being has never really been paramount in any of this. That seems demonstrably to be the case, anyway, though the adults in question seem not to have really realized it:
"I can tell you that that brings a lot of anger and emotion on me," Williams said through tears Tuesday. "Why? Just why?"
In a statement to KFOR, Vaughn said that he and Wilson are "grateful for the court's validation."
"We remain focused exclusively on our child's protection and well-being," Vaughn said.
Yeah not sure I buy that. If you wanted to ensure your child's "protection and well-being," you probably wouldn't have subjected him to this cruel and tumultuous chaos.
Don't do this to kids. Don't bring them into the world as part of some boutique arrangement using two bodies as if they were goods in a catalogue. Bring children into stable families of one mother and one father. If you can't have children, adopt the ones that desperately need adoption.
