Following up on a BioEdge story from last year, a woman whose child was born through posthumous conception was denied survivor benefits, in a US Supreme Court decision on Monday.

Following up on a BioEdge story from last year, a woman whose child was born through posthumous conception was denied survivor benefits, in a US Supreme Court decision on Monday. For years courts have wrestled with the issue of whether the Social Security Administration should pay survivor benefits for a child conceived after a parent’s death through IVF. In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court declared that a determination of whether a child satisfies the definition of “child” under the federal Social Security Act rests with the law of each state.

The case concerned Robert Capato’s wife, Karen, whose twins were conceived using frozen sperm and born 18 months after their father died of oesophageal cancer. The SSA rejected her application for survivor benefits, saying that for them to qualify, Robert Capato had to have been alive during their conception. This decision was overturned by a US Court of Appeals which ruled that the Capato twins were Robert Capato’s children under federal law definition, and deserved survivor benefits. The Supreme Court reversed this, ruling that under Florida law, the Capato twins were ineligible. ~ Wall Street Journal, May 21

High Court denies benefits to parent of twins born through IVF
Jared Yee
Creative commons
IVF
law
US