What Constitutes Artificial Reproductive Technology?

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) defines artificial reproductive technology (ART) as any fertility treatment that involves handling eggs or embryos. “Handling” usually means surgically removing the eggs from the ovaries, blending them with sperm in a lab, then removing them to the original woman’s ovaries or those of another woman. By that definition, ARTs don’t include treatments that only involve handling sperm, such as artificial insemination, or in which a woman uses medication to bolster egg production but doesn’t plan to harvest the eggs.

Many people are familiar with in-vitro fertilization (IVF) and think that’s ART itself. However, IVF is one form of ART, albeit a popular one that makes up the majority of ART procedures. But there are three others:

  • Gamete intrafallopian transfer (IGT)
  • Frozen embryo transfer (FET)
  • Zygote intrafallopian transfer (ZIFT)

For the sake of simplicity, this article will refer to ART to cover all of these procedures. While they’ve been a blessing for so many families, they can sometimes cause legal complications for the people involved.

How Is Paternity Established in Indiana?

Establishing paternity sets the stage for assigning parental rights and responsibilities to the father of the child in question. There are several ways to do this.

  • Marriage. If the mother and father are married at the time of the child’s birth, the father is automatically recognized as having paternity. If the marriage ended but still was in place within 300 days of the birth, the divorced man is still considered the father.
  • Paternity affidavit. If the parents aren’t married, they can sign a paternity affidavit and submit it to the court to establish his paternity. Both parents must sign it for it to be valid.
  • Testing. When paternity is under dispute, the court may order DNA testing to determine who the biological father is.

How Does Artificial Reproductive Technology Affect Legal Paternity?

One of the ways ART can become complicated is if a man donates sperm to be mixed with a woman’s eggs when they’re not married or a couple. It may be a direct donation or via a sperm bank. For example, if two gay women want to have a child or if a married male and female want to have a child but suffer from male infertility, they may approach another male (often a family member or close friend) to ask him to donate his sperm. Or an embryo developed in a lab may be placed into a surrogate’s ovary for her to bring to term, at which point the embryo’s donor (a mother who can’t carry a baby to term) takes the child as her own.

Complications can arise in multiple forms. The following are just two common examples. Regardless of the specifics of your case, if it appears that establishing paternity in an ART situation is potentially problematic, it’s crucial you work with an experienced paternity and ART attorney as soon as possible. Suppose you’re at the beginning stages of considering using ART to start a family. In that case, it’s highly recommended to work with an Indiana attorney as well to help you identify and protect against some of the primary legal challenges that could arise later.

  • Involuntary paternity. A man may donate sperm to a couple who want to have a child and think that’s the end of the agreement. But in Indiana, a sperm donation that leads to a pregnancy could lead to the man being legally assigned paternity, even if he doesn’t want it. He could face having to support the child going forward.
  • Custody. If a couple used another man’s sperm to conceive a child and later divorce, it’s possible the mother could try and claim that the former husband is not the father since he didn’t contribute the sperm that created the child. The opposite may apply as well in that if the sperm donor eventually wants to be part of the child’s life, they may try to go to court to establish their paternity and even request custody.

Can Drawing Up Contracts Prevent Legal Problems with Artificial Reproductive Technologies?

It’s possible, but to do so, the contract needs to be carefully drawn up by Indiana laws and court preferences. This is not the time to enter into an oral agreement, handwritten note, or handshake. When something as consequential as paternity and potential child custody and support orders is at stake, it’s imperative to work with an experienced attorney.

When drawing up a contract, it should be as detailed as possible as to the rights and responsibilities that the father is either accepting or relinquishing. If a sperm donor does not want paternity but would like to meet and occasionally visit the child, that needs to be included.

Even then, it’s possible the court will overrule it if they deem it not to be in the child’s best interests.

What Should I Do if I Need Help with Establishing Paternity in a Case of Artificial Reproductive Technology?

Call the Law Office of Deidra Haynes as soon as possible at 317-785-1832 to get started. Establishing paternity and assigning rights and responsibilities to the correct parties is vitally important to the child in question. The laws around ART and paternity are complex and difficult. Our team of experienced paternity and ART attorneys can review your case to devise the best approach to achieve your desired outcomes.