Melissa Brisman, counsel for plaintiffs, makes the following statement today in light of the ground-breaking ruling in favor of her clients
By Melissa B. Brisman, Melissa B. Brisman, Esq., LLC
December 6, 2005

In a landmark ruling, issued on December 5, 2005, the Honorable Daniel J. Lawler of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, Orphans Court signed a Decree determining that two men are the legal parents of two children anticipated to be born on or about January 28, 2006, to a gestational carrier, and to be officially recognized as the children’s only parents. Judge Lawler ruled that the gay men, one being the biological father of the twins, must be listed on the Birth Certificates of each child as the sole legal parents of the children. No mother is to be listed on the Birth Certificates. The biological father’s sperm was used to fertilize eggs from an anonymous egg donor, in an in vitro fertilization procedure.

The ruling is one of the first of its kind in Pennsylvania.

Melissa B. Brisman, owner of a law firm which concentrates its practice in reproductive law, presented the case. Ms. Brisman is licensed to practice law in Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts. Ms. Brisman called this landmark ruling “A victory for reproductive rights.”