Before 2021, New York’s parentage laws were out of step with the advancing science. As a result, the law imposed significant obstacles to those hoping to have children through third party reproduction. Indeed, until 2021, New York was one of a handful of states that criminalized compensated surrogacy. New York law was also wholly inadequate to protect the parental relationships between children and parents when the child was conceived through egg, sperm or embryo donation.
Starting in 2010, knowing that meaningful change would only take place through the legislative process, Rumbold & Seidelman, together with our colleagues, Rebecca Mendel and Laurie Goldheim, rolled up our sleeves and drafted the comprehensive parentage legislation now known as the Child Parent Security Act (CPSA). We worked closely with Assemblymember Amy Paulin and State Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal to draft and gain passage of that bill. Resolve – The National Infertility Association was there from the beginning, teaching us the political ropes. Ultimately, over the years, other attorneys and advocacy organizations joined the effort and the Building Modern Families Coalition was born. After about ten years of hard work, the CPSA was enacted into law in 2021. The CPSA has been a gamechanger for New Yorkers because it overturned the ban on compensated surrogacy and created a clear legal framework for securing the parentage of all people conceiving and conceived through third party reproduction. Over the years Rumbold & Seidelman has also brought and won several important cases which slowly brought New York law in line with the way in which children are being increasingly conceived and born as a result of medical advances.
