Legal Question in Family Law in Connecticut

Re: sperm donation

Family Code section 7613(b) provides that a sperm donor to licensed physician is not liable for child support. This code section was written with a man and a woman are married. The law is unsettled at this time and it would be risky to assume that this section applies to a lesbian couple. a copy of this section is set forth below.

7613. (a) If, under the supervision of a licensed physician and surgeon and with the consent of her husband, a wife is inseminated artificially with semen donated by a man not her husband, the husband is treated in law as if he were the natural father of a child thereby conceived. The husband's consent must be in writing and

signed by him and his wife. The physician and surgeon shall certify their signatures and the date of the insemination, and retain the husband's consent as part of the medical record, where it shall be kept confidential and in a sealed file. However, the physician and surgeon's failure to do so does not affect the father and child relationship. All papers and records pertaining to the insemination, whether part of the permanent record of a court or of a file held by the supervising physician and surgeon or elsewhere, are subject to inspection only upon an order of the court for good cause shown.

(b) The donor of semen provided to a licensed physician and surgeon for use in artificial insemination of a woman other than the donor's wife is treated in law as if he were not the natural father of a child thereby conceived.

Re: sperm donation

The fact that the couple does not want you involved financially means nothing legally. As a father, you will be legally required to support his child.

Re: sperm donation

You'd be taking a huge risk. Courts have held that even if the mother agrees to relieve you of child support obligations, it isn't her call. You owe the duty to the child, not the mother, and the mother can't waive the child's right to support. Of course, she may never go to court to seek support, but what if the couple breaks up, or she goes on state. Then she might, and the state certainly would, look to you for support. Or (and this is a possibility), what if the child turns 18 and comes looking to you for retroactive support? Bad idea.