Court Orders A Craigslist Sperm Donor To Pay Child Support

A Kansas man who answered a lesbian couple's Craigslist ad seeking a sperm donation is responsible for paying child support, the Topeka Capital-Journal reports.

A judge made the final ruling on the case this week.

In 2010, Angela Bauer and her partner Jennifer Schreiner wrote a Craigslist ad that read: "We are foster and adoptive parents, and now we desire to share a pregnancy and birth together."

William Marotta answered the ad, and according to the Daily Dot, he and the couple signed a contract stating he was under no obligation to support the child financially over the course of its lifetime.

But District Court Judge Mary Mattivi ruled William Marotta is the child's legal father and as result, he would be required to pay child support.

So then how come he has to pay up?

Both parties involved failed to complete all of the necessary steps required for a legal sperm donation, like using a licensed physician for the artificial insemination procedure.

Judge Mattvi writes,

Kansas law is clear that a ?donor of semen provided to a licensed physician for use in artificial insemination of a woman other than the donor's wife is treated in law as if he were not the birth father of a child thereby conceived, unless agreed to in writing by the donor and the woman. In this case, quite simply, the parties failed to conform to the statutory requirements of the Kansas Parentage Act in not enlisting a licensed physician at some point in the artificial insemination process, and the parties' self-designation of (Marotta) as a sperm donor is insufficient to relieve (Marotta) of parental rights and responsibilities.

Both Bauer and Schreiner have opposed the state's attempts to require Marotta to pay child support.

"This was a wonderful opportunity with a guy with an admirable, giving character who wanted nothing more than to help us have a child," Bauer told the Capital Journal. "I feel like the state of Kansas has made a mess out of the situation."