WICHITA, Kansas – It’s a first of its kind in Kansas, according to Wichita attorney Dan Monnat.
The state of Kansas is demanding William Marotta of Topeka help support a lesbian couple’s three-year-old daughter.
In 2009, Marotta answered the couple’s ad on Craigslist for a sperm donor. He delivered the sperm to their house, which the couple inserted on their own. Marotta also signed away all parental rights. The problem is, he didn’t realize that state law still considers him the birth father and responsible for supporting the child since a physician wasn’t involved in the insemination.
“The statute itself was probably well-intended, inserting a physician in the middle of this as the only practical way to assure against false claims of artificial insemination,” Monnat says.
When the couple broke up, the one who mothered the child turned to the state for public assistance. She says the state compelled her to turn over the biological father’s name. Now, Marotta is fighting the state’s demand of $6,000 in child support. His attorneys set up a Facebook page to solicit donations for the legal fees, as they ask a judge to dismiss the case.
“The issue will be whether to follow the letter of the law or to carve out some kind of exception of the law based on the parties’ intent,” Monnat says.
KWCH 12 Eyewitness News – By Jim Grawe