Little-noticed Pennsylvania case gives child 3 legal parents
Posted on Jul 20, 2007
by Michael Foust

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--Did a little-noticed spring judicial ruling in Pennsylvania possibly help lay the initial groundwork for legalized polygamy?

A recent op-ed columnist in The New York Times thinks it might have.

In a column titled, "When 3 Really Is a Crowd," Elizabeth Marquardt of the Institute for American Values wrote about a case from April in which a Pennsylvania appeals court panel unanimously ruled that a child can have three legal parents -- two moms (separated lesbians) and a dad (the sperm donor). The case, Jacob v. Shultz-Jacob, essentially focused on child support payments -- the man was made a legal parent over his objections -- but the case nevertheless is dangerous in its possible precedence, Marquardt said. Although in this example all three legal parents live separately, in other instances, Marquardt noted, "the three adults might want to live together." the rest