%0 Journal Article
%T Culliton v. Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
%A  
%J Wests North East Rep
%V 756
%N 0
%D 2001
%M 17225347
暂无%X Court Decision: 756 North Eastern Reporter, 2d Series 1133; 2001 Oct 12 (date of decision). The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts ordered the defendant hospital to designate the plaintiffs as parents on the birth certificates of their genetic children, delivered at the defendant hospital by a gestational carrier. Steven and Marla Culliton entered into a gestational surrogacy agreement with Melissa Carroll to have embryos which were created by in vitro fertilization with the plaintiffs' own sperm and ova, implanted in the carrier. Before the children's births the plaintiffs requested a declaration of paternity and maternity and an order directing the hospital to enter the plaintiffs' names in the children's birth certificates. The Family Court dismissed the complaint, citing lack of authority to issue any prebirth order of parentage. On appeal, the Supreme Judicial Court held that the Family Court had the authority to consider the complaint because the plaintiffs were the only genetic sources of the children, and neither party contested the complaint. Because the children were born while the case was on appeal, the Supreme Judicial Court entered judgment for the plaintiffs and ordered that they be listed as the mother and father of the children on their birth records. The Supreme Judicial Court also held that the defendant hospital was still required to supply the state Department of Health with confidential information regarding the identity of the woman who delivered the children and "her prenatal health, labor and delivery, and postpartum care and condition" under the hospital's duties and responsibilities to report vital records information for research and public health purposes.