Sperm donor to lesbians liable for child support

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: A sperm donor who helped a lesbian couple conceive two children is liable for child support under a state appellate court ruling that a legal expert believes might be the first of its kind in the US.

A Superior Court panel last week ordered a Dauphin County judge to establish how much Carl L. Frampton Junior would have to pay to the birth mother of the 8-year-old boy and 7-year-old girl.

"I'm unaware of any other state appellate court that has found that a child has, simultaneously, three adults who are financially obligated to the child's support and are also entitled to visitation," said New York Law School professor Arthur S. Leonard, an expert on sexuality and the law.

But Frampton, 60, of Indiana, Pennsylvania, died suddenly of a stroke in March, leaving lawyers involved in the case with different theories about how his death may affect the precedent-setting case.

Licence

Jodilynn Jacob, 33, and Jennifer Lee Shultz-Jacob, 48, moved in together as a couple in 1996, and were granted a civil-union licence in Vermont in 2002.

In addition to conceiving the two children with the help of Frampton - a longtime friend of Shultz-Jacob's - Jacob also adopted her brother's two older children, now 12 and 13. But the women's relationship fell apart, and Jacob and the children moved out of their Dillsburg, Pennsylvania, home in February 2006.

Shortly afterward, a court awarded her about $1,000 (Dh3,673) a month in support from Shultz-Jacob. Shultz-Jacob later lost an effort to have the court force Frampton to contribute support - a decision the Superior Court overturned on April 30.

Jacob, who now lives in Harrisburg, said Frampton provided some financial support over the years and gradually took a greater interest in the children.

"Part of the decision came down because he was so involved with them," Jacob said on Wednesday. "It wasn't that he went to the [sperm] bank and that was it. They called him Papa." The process was very informal - Jacob was inseminated at home.

In his written opinion requiring Frampton to help pay for the child's support, Superior Court Judge John T.J. Kelly Junior noted that Frampton spent thousands of dollars on the children, including purchases of toys and clothing.

The children knew he was their biological father, but Frampton opposed the effort to compel support from him.