A boy whose biological parents wanted him aborted after he was diagnosed with a serious heart defect was born in Dallas, Texas, on 12 August. According to the Associated Press, the baby is being stabilized before receiving heart surgery.
The boy was diagnosed with hypoplastic left heart syndrome in the 20th week of pregnancy. Without treatment, the condition can lead to death within days or weeks. However, a series of medical interventions allows many of those affected to live into adulthood.
One day before the birth, a court in Dallas ordered that the child be given all the medically necessary and life-sustaining treatment. No one may refuse, delay or obstruct his care. His transfer out of the hospital or out of Texas also remains prohibited for the time being.
Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton had intervened because, in his view, the commissioning parents had not given binding consent to the necessary heart surgery. “Every child in our state deserves care and protection”, Paxton said after the ruling.
She Saved Him, but Cannot See Him
At the same time, the commissioning couple asserted their rights as the legal parents. A judge barred McKenna West, his surrogate mother, from making medical decisions for the boy or presenting herself as his mother. According to her lawyer, she is not allowed to see or hold the newborn.
West had carried the boy for nine months, resisted the requested abortion and sought a hospital in Texas with pediatric heart surgery. The Californian couple is now with the child, while the woman who gave birth to him is denied access. Even the boy’s name is disputed. West and Paxton call him Gabriel. The commissioning parents say his name is Rumi.
Their lawyer, Lee Budner, told the Texas Tribune that his clients’ only concern was getting their son the treatment he urgently needed. West and Paxton were turning a family tragedy into “political theater”. The couple denies that they intended to refuse the boy surgery after his birth.
However, an earlier filing by their lawyers confirms that they initially decided on an abortion after the diagnosis. They later changed course and prepared for treatment in California.
The Surrogacy Industry Claims it Protects Everyone
Worldwide Surrogacy Specialists advertises comprehensive support and a process designed to run as smoothly as possible. According to the agency, an in-house legal department and independent lawyers are intended to protect everyone involved. The surrogate is at the center of this protection.
West had a detailed contract and her own lawyer. Nevertheless, the document contained an abortion clause that the commissioning parents invoked after the diagnosis. If she refused, West faced a claim of more than $250,000.
The jurisdiction was also stipulated in the contract. Nevertheless, the dispute ended up before courts in Alaska, California and Texas. In the end, an attorney general had to intervene to secure the child’s treatment.
Commercial surrogacy seeks to organize pregnancy as a predictable service. The contract allocates money and parental rights long before conception. As soon as the child deviated from medical expectations, a clause that also governed the end of his life before birth became relevant.
A further hearing is scheduled for 25 August. Until then, the boy will remain in a Dallas hospital, where he is being prepared for his surgery. The woman who carried him under her heart, his mother, remains separated from him.