Lesbian couple fight to have both names on son’s birth certificate
A Superior Court judge in Monmouth County has denied a lesbian couple’s request that both of their names should be put on their baby son’s birth certificate.
There is an artificial insemination statue in the State, which enables a husband to have his name on his wife’s child’s birth certificate if he has consented to her artificial insemination by another man, though this is the first time that the statue has been tested with regards to gay couples.
The judge, Ronald Reisner, determined that the State rather than the court had the right to decide whether Catherine O Connor and Stephanie DiVita should both be parents on the certificate. He said that adoption would be one good way for Ms DiVita to establish her parental rights, saying: “the plaintiffs have an efficient method for the rapid recognition of Ms. DiVita as the parent.”
The couple set the wheels in motion for Ms DiVita to adopt her partner’s baby the day after he was born, but they had hoped that they would both be able to use the legislation to become parents by birth instead.
