With the advent of technology and additional fertility techniques, family law attorneys are seeing new issues all the time. An example of an issue that would not have been possible several years ago can be seen in a recent lawsuit involving actress Sofia Vergara and her ex-fiance, Nick Loeb. Sofia Vergara - Ex-Fiance Wants to Have Her Baby, by TMZ Staff, tmz.com, April 15, 2015. When Loeb and Vergara were a couple, they agreed to have a child by in vitro fertilization. Her eggs were fertilized by his sperm and then frozen. They have since broken up and Vergara now wants the fertilized eggs destroyed. Loeb has sued her to prevent this from happening, claiming they made a contract to have children, which he now wants to do with the fertilized eggs. According to Nick's lawyer, "Nick is not seeking to impose any parental obligations on the egg donor, financial or otherwise, and believes that the sanctity of life, his interest in achieving parenthood, and his desire to bring his daughters to term outweighs any interest the egg donor may have in destroying the embryos." Nick Loeb - Sofia Should Not Deny Life to Our 2 Daughters, by TMZ Staff, tmz.com, April 21, 2015.
This case brings up some interesting issues. Since the parties were not married, equitable division does not come into play. In addition, it is not likely to be treated as a custody issue, since custody issues are not usually even addressed until the child is actually born. Here, though the eggs have been fertilized, they have not been implanted into a surrogate yet so there is no telling if the pregnancy would even be successful at this point. As such, a Judge will have to determine to whom the embryos actually belong. They have parts of both Vergara and Loeb in them and, obviously cannot be separated so there is not a compromise available. It is unclear why Loeb cannot attempt to have a child via in vitro fertilization with an anonymous egg donor, but the Judge will certainly look into this in determining whose interest should come out on top here. It will be interesting to see how this one turns out.