Surrogate challenges California parent ruling, seeks Supreme Court relief for newborn with heart defect
Surrogate McKenna West has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to pause a California court decision that named the intended parents as legal guardians of her baby, who was born with a severe heart defect.
Alaska-based cardiac nurse McKenna West agreed to be a surrogate for California couple Nausheen Gilkar and Omar Ahmed, but declined to terminate the pregnancy when a 20-week ultrasound identified hypoplastic left heart syndrome in the fetus. The baby, born in Texas as Gabriel, required immediate life-saving surgery. A Los Angeles Superior Court ruled on June 22 that Gilkar and Ahmed are the child’s legal parents, a judgment West says exceeds the court’s jurisdiction and that she was improperly served with papers.
After losing attempts to stay the order in three state courts, West’s lawyers filed an emergency application with Justice Elena Kagan, seeking a temporary block of the California ruling so she can seek participation in the Texas case overseeing the infant’s treatment. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton had earlier secured an order ensuring the baby received care, but a Texas judge later upheld the California decision and removed West from the case. West argues that without Supreme Court intervention she will be cut off from information about the child’s condition, potentially missing the chance to protect him.
Why it matters
The dispute could set precedent for jurisdiction and parental rights in U.S. surrogacy cases involving critically ill infants.
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