[ad_1]
In a post on Facebook, the couple described their story and need to find an unpaid volunteer who would be willing to help them have a baby. Ms. Vermilye, 35, who also lives in Grand Rapids, read the post and sent them a note saying she was interested.
“My husband and I had talked about how I had a gift of carrying and delivering very easily,” said Ms. Vermilye, who has a girl and a boy who are 6 and 9. “We felt like it was kind of unfair that we had it so easy and have friends and family that don’t.”
In June 2020, embryos created through in vitro fertilization with Ms. Myers’s eggs and Mr. Myers’s sperm were transferred into Ms. Vermilye’s uterus, a process known as gestational surrogacy.
Ms. Vermilye and her husband, Jonathan, became close friends with the Myerses. The Vermilyes, through their lawyer, Dion Roddy, have filed affidavits making it clear that they are not the twins’ biological parents.
But judges in Kent County, Mich., have refused to grant the Myerses a hearing.
“While this Court has genuine concerns about the present-day wisdom of the 1988 Surrogate Parenting Act, such concerns are better left to the legislative/political arena,” Judge Daniel V. Zemaitis wrote in a Dec. 3 decision that denied the couple parental rights.
Mr. Roddy said other judges in the state had granted parental rights when the biological father sought them. In January, just before the twins were born, Mr. Myers, along with Ms. Vermilye, filed another motion, asking the court to grant Mr. Myers parental rights.
But four days after the twins were born, a different judge, Scott Noto, denied the request, saying he was being asked to validate a contract the state had deemed void. “The Court has no authority to enforce such a contract,” he wrote.
[ad_2]
Source link
