Should sperm donors have parental duties?

By Pia Gadkari BBC News,
Washington – 2/21/2013

As more women become pregnant using sperm donated by men they know, the law must establish what role, if any, these men should play in their biological children’s lives.

When William Marotta answered a Craigslist ad seeking a sperm donor, he was just trying to help two women start a family.

Over a few days in 2009, he gave the couple several donations in plastic cups and signed an agreement giving up all his parental rights. He thought he would never see them again.

But in October he got an alarming letter: though the women did not want him to be part of the child’s life, the state of Kansas was suing him for child support.

Mr Marotta, 45, discovered that the women raising his biological daughter had separated and the child’s mother, facing financial difficulties, had enrolled the girl in Medicaid, a government healthcare programme for the poor.

The state asked her for the name of the girl’s father, who officials said was financially responsible for the medical expenses incurred.

Click here to read the full article.