Jacob, YOB: 2008

Intended Parents

For most heterosexual couples pursuing conception with the woman’s own eggs and the sperm of her male partner, the parental identity is straightforward. However, with the advent of third party treatments, which rely upon donor sperm, donor eggs, donated embryos and host wombs, the legal concept of parenthood has had to undergo close scrutiny and elucidation.

From a legal perspective, the crucial role of the Intended Parent(s) was established in a landmark decision by the Supreme Court of California in 1998 (Buzzanca v. Buzzanca). This ruling affirms that, regardless of who provides the eggs, sperm or uterus, the Intended Parent(s) are “the first cause, prime movers, of the procreative relationship." Therefore, a parental relationship is established when medical procedures are initiated and consented to by the Intended Parent(s), even in the absence of any genetic or gestational relationship between them and the child(ren) thus created. At the Alta Bates IVF Program our first task is to unequivocally establish who the Intended Parents are before initiating any treatments.

In addition to the legal definition, however, there are state and federal (FDA) regulations which define the type of screening required for providers of reproductive tissues. In California sperm providers have to be tested for 5 infectious diseases even if they are sexually intimate partners of the recipient.

The FDA regulations, on the other hand, exempt sexually intimate partners from all screening but impose very stringent and time-restricted screening protocols on both anonymous and known donors. Thus the FDA regulations consider sexually intimate partners and gamete donors to be mutually exclusive categories.