Supreme Court declines to intervene in Alaska surrogate custody dispute
The U.S. Supreme Court rejected an emergency request from an Alaska surrogate to block a California court order naming a couple as the legal parents of a baby born with a severe heart defect.
Justice Elena Kagan denied an emergency petition filed by McKenna West, an Alaska nurse who acted as a surrogate, seeking to halt a California court order that recognized Omar Ahmed and Nausheen Gilkar as the legal parents of their son, who was born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome. West’s attorneys had asked the high court to step in, arguing that the child’s life was at risk and that she was being excluded from decisions about his care.
The couple had signed a surrogacy agreement that allowed termination of the pregnancy if a fetal abnormality was detected. After a scan revealed the heart defect, Ahmed and Gilkar requested an abortion, but West refused and traveled to Texas, where abortion is prohibited, to give birth. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton intervened, and a Dallas judge ordered that the infant receive medical treatment.
The Supreme Court’s refusal comes shortly after the Texas Supreme Court permitted the infant to be transferred to a Los Angeles hospital for surgery. The court noted that preserving the child’s life is the primary concern in the time-sensitive case. West continues to seek custody, claiming the legal parents may not provide necessary medical care.