Texas Attorney General moves to secure life-saving care for surrogate-born baby with heart defect
Surrogate McKenna West traveled to Dallas to ask a court for permission to keep the infant she carries in Texas for essential treatment after the intended parents refused consent.
In a legal filing, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office backed surrogate McKenna West, a nurse who entered an Alaska surrogacy contract with intended parents Nausheen Gilkar and Omar Ahmed through Worldwide Surrogacy Specialists. West, now in Dallas, asked a family district court to permit the newborn—diagnosed with hypoplastic left heart syndrome—to remain in Texas for life-saving surgery, after the parents allegedly refused consent and sought to take the child back to California for treatment decisions.
Paxton sent letters to UT Southwestern Medical Center and Children’s Medical Center of Dallas asserting their legal obligation to deliver medically necessary care. Under Texas law, the state can intervene when a child’s welfare is at risk, and physicians may act without parental permission in emergencies. The filing challenges the notion that gestational agreements can expand parental authority beyond Texas statutes. Anti-abortion group Texas Alliance for Life praised the move, while the parties involved have not commented.
Why it matters
The case tests how state child-welfare powers can override surrogacy agreements and parental refusals of medical care.
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