Pennsylvania Court Finds Three Adults Can Have Parental Rights
May 1, 2007

A unanimous panel of the Pennsylvania Superior Court, an intermediate appellate court, ruled on April 30 in Jacob v. Shultz-Jacob, 2007 Westlaw 1240885, 2007 PA Super 118, that a child may have three parents, in this case a former lesbian couple and the man who donated sperm so they could have some children. The unusual ruling is not based on Pennsylvania family law statutes, but instead on judge-made doctrine of "equitable estoppel," which has occasionally been used to in the past to enforce child support obligations against persons who are not legal parents.

According to the opinion for the court by Senior Judge John T. Kelly, Jr., Jodilynn Jacob and Jennifer Schultz lived together in York County, Pennsylvania, for about six years beginning in 1996. During that time, they had a commitment ceremony in Pittsburgh, and formed a civil union in Vermont, Jennifer taking the last name Schultz-Jacob. Jodilynn had two young nephews whom she had adopted, and she was the birth mother of two other children, conceived through donor insemination. The sperm donor was Carl Frampton, a long-time friend of Jennifer. the rest