Same-Sex Custody Battles Test the Definition of Parenthood
he Mississippi Supreme Court on Nov. 29 heard the case of a woman suing her former lesbian partner for parental rights.
A steady stream of gay custody battles is working its way through the courts in the wake of the 2015 U.S. Supreme Court Obergefell decision legalizing same-sex marriage. More same-sex couples are using donor eggs and sperm, surrogacy, and in vitro fertilization to conceive children, but most state laws regarding parental rights and assisted reproductive technology are based on biological assumptions—granting full parental rights to a married husband and wife, but not to a wife and wife or husband and husband.
LGBT advocates argue the redefinition of marriage necessitates a redefinition of parenthood. But critics say these cases are further dissolving the link between biology and parenthood and pushing against what social science has continually shown: Children do best when...