Professor Jessica Feinberg’s latest article, “After Marriage Equality: Dual Fatherhood for Married Male Same-Sex Couples,” has been published in the UC Davis Law Review.
The article examines the challenges in establishing parentage faced by married male same-sex couples who conceive children via gestational surrogacy using sperm from one member of the couple and donor ova. In most states, the couple must pursue adoption in order to establish legal parentage for the member of the couple who is not genetically related to the child. This is because only a minority of jurisdictions have surrogacy laws that recognize the non-biological intended parent as a legal parent in this situation, and across the United States cisgender male same-sex couples are excluded from the longstanding marriage-based avenues of establishing parentage currently available to both different-sex couples and female same-sex couples. The article advances a comprehensive proposal for extending marriage-based avenues of establishing parentage to male same-sex couples. If implemented, the proposal would provide a more equitable and effective legal framework for parentage establishment.
Professor Feinberg joined the faculty at Maine Law in August 2020. She is a nationally recognized expert in family law and gender and sexuality law. She has a proven track record of excellence in both teaching and scholarship. Prior to joining the Law School, she was a professor at Mercer Law School for nine years. She also completed a teaching fellowship at Tulane University Law School, and served as a visiting assistant professor at DePaul University College of Law.
“After Marriage Equality: Dual Fatherhood for Married Male Same-Sex Couples” is available on SSRN.
