By Christopher White

Last week marked the 28th birthday of Baby M, the child who was born from the surrogate pregnancy arrangement between Mary Beth Whitehead who was paid to use her eggs and womb and William Stern’s sperm to give birth to a child for Stern and his infertile wife, Elizabeth. After delivery, Whitehead decided that she was too emotionally attached to the child and refused to surrender the child. This soon sparked a legal battle over the custody of the child that gripped the entire country. While the New Jersey Supreme Court ultimately granted custody to Stern, it also ruled paid surrogacy contracts illegal and banned the practice in the state. In 2012 the New Jersey State legislature tried to reverse the ban, but Governor Chris Christie later vetoed the bill citing “the profound change in the traditional beginnings of the family that this bill will enact.”