Minnesota Donor Insemination Law
Minnesota law explicitly allows married women to undergo donor insemination. The law allows a married woman to obtain semen from a licensed physician for artificial insemination and strips the donor of any legal relationship to a resulting child. The law is silent on whether unmarried women can undergo donor insemination.
Cases Dealing with Donor Insemination
At least one court has deemed a donor the biological father. However, the facts of the case are unique and unlikely to be followed as precedent in other donor insemination cases. In LaChapelle v. Mitten, a lesbian couple and a gay male couple entered into an agreement to have a child together. LaChapelle (one of the male partners) donated semen for the artificial insemination of Mitten (one of the female partners). In an initial written agreement, LaChapelle agreed he would have no parental rights. In a subsequent agreement, before the child’s birth, the parties agreed that LaChapelle and his partner would have a “significant relationship” with the child. When the child was born, Mitten and her partner petitioned for adoption and made no mention of LaChapelle as the biological father or the arrangements between the parties. The two women allowed LaChapelle regular visitation for a short period, but soon terminated his contact with the child. LaChapelle then asked the court to vacate the adoption as fraudulent and filed a petition to adjudicate paternity. The court vacated the adoption and ruled that LaChapelle was the child’s biological father. In making custody, visitation and other determinations, the trial court looked to the arrangements that the parties had previously made. LaChapelle agreed not to seek legal custody and the court granted him the right to participate in important decisions affecting the child. The Court of Appeals affirmed.
Citations: MINN. STAT. § 257.56 (2002); LaChapelle v. Mitten, 607 N.W.2d 151 (Minn. Ct. App. 2000).
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Last Updated: 6/13/2006