{"id":10586,"date":"2008-01-06T18:28:08","date_gmt":"2008-01-07T00:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/?p=10586"},"modified":"2008-01-06T18:28:08","modified_gmt":"2008-01-07T00:28:08","slug":"sanity-irruption-dan-collins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/?p=10586","title":{"rendered":"Sanity Irruption [Dan Collins]"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reader “Pat Riotic” emails me to take notice of a story in which a judge injects a modicum of sanity into a paternity case:<\/a><\/p>\n

A woman who promised a sperm donor he would not have to pay child support cannot renege on the deal, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled.\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0The 3-2 decision overturns lower court rulings under which Joel L. McKiernan had been paying up to $1,500 a month to support twin boys born in August 1994 to Ivonne V. Ferguson, his former girlfriend and co-worker.\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0“This court takes very seriously the best interests of the children of this commonwealth, and we recognize that to rule in favor of (McKiernan) in this case denies a source of support to two children who did not ask to be born into this situation,” Justice Max Baer wrote in the majority opinion issued last week.<\/p>\n

“Absent the parties’ agreement, however, the twins would not have been born at all, or would have been born to a different and anonymous sperm donor, who neither party disputes would be safe from a support order,” Baer wrote.\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ferguson and McKiernan met while working together at Pennsylvania Blue Shield in Harrisburg and had a sexual relationship that had waned before Ferguson persuaded him to donate sperm for her. Courts found that the two agreed McKiernan would not have to pay child support and would not have visitation rights, but Ferguson later changed her mind and sued. Ferguson’s lawyer has disputed that the agreement existed in the first place, but courts have agreed with McKiernan on that issue.\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0Between the time of the donation and when Ferguson sought support in 1999, McKiernan moved to Pittsburgh, got married and had a child.\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

A county judge called Ferguson’s actions despicable but said it was in the twins’ best interests that McKiernan be required to support them. In addition to monthly payments, McKiernan was also ordered to come up with $66,000 in back support, although he was not required to do so until the appeal was resolved.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So, a woman’s right to change her mind is apparently circumscribed, after all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reader “Pat Riotic” emails me to take notice of a story in which a judge injects a modicum of sanity into a paternity case: A woman who promised a sperm donor he would not have to pay child support cannot renege on the deal, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled.\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0The 3-2 decision overturns lower court rulings under which Joel L. McKiernan had been paying up to $1,500 a month to support<\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":587,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/587"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10586\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}