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KIE: In 1985 William Stern and Mary Beth Whitehead signed a surrogate parenting agreement which provided that Whitehead would be inseminated with Stern's semen and would surrender any resulting child to him and his wife, at which time she would be paid $10,000. Whitehead subsequently tried to keep the child, but the New Jersey Superior Court (Chancery Division/Family Part, Bergen County) awarded temporary custody of "Baby M" to the Sterns and then ruled on 31 March 1987 that the surrogacy contract was valid and that Stern should have sole custody, with Whitehead's parental rights to be terminated and Mrs. Stern given the right to adopt the child. In the current decision, the New Jersey Supreme Court upholds the awarding of custody to Mr. Stern as in the child's best interest, but holds the contract to be unenforceable and restores Whitehead's parental rights, leaving the terms of her visitation rights as noncustodial parent to be established by the trial court.
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