A newborn baby at Medical City Dallas will receive life-saving care. But that's only after the surrogate who carried the baby fought for him to have a chance at life.
Under Texas law, a surrogate has all rights to protect her life and the life of the unborn child while she's pregnant. But that changes as soon as the baby is born, and that worried one surrogate who lives in North Texas because of what happened earlier in the pregnancy.
"It's as complex a puzzle as you could have," said attorney John Schorsch.
It took a lot to bring the baby boy, who was born Thursday, into the world. His biological parents had to hire a surrogate, and his story could have ended at 16 weeks in the womb when the parents learned he had a genetic heart defect.
"Their decision was to request the surrogate to abort the baby," said attorney Karen Turner.
Turner said that's despite medical advice that the child's condition was treatable. The surrogate refused to have an abortion, and as the birthdate neared a new fear led her to hire Turner and Schorsch as her attorneys.
"She had a concern, based on various information that's been provided to her, that medical care would not be provided to the child," Turner said.
Local
The latest news from around North Texas.
The baby would need surgery within a week of his birth and two more operations later on. And the surrogate knew as soon as the little boy was born, she would lose all rights.
"She became a legal stranger to the child," Turner said.
Turner and Schorsch reached out to the biological parents' attorneys, but they wouldn't share any assurances of care.
"That silence in the face of what could have been a very easy solution, that was part of the equation," Schorsch said.
The attorney general and Dallas County District Attorney's Office stepped in, and on Friday prosecutors told NBC 5 the biological parents are promising to do anything medically necessary to keep their baby alive and healthy.
"All she wanted for Christmas was to know that this child that she carried for, someone else was going to have a chance to be OK, and that seems to be happening and she's joyous over it," Schorsch said.
The woman has been a surrogate twice before. She believes in the process and says it's the best gift you can give.
But it's a relatively new process, and the law around it varies across the country. This case was even more complicated because the parents live in another state.
Turner and Schorsch say that a uniform law requiring all states to follow common rules would make the process much smoother.
