Alaska Surrogate Appeals Newborn Custody to Supreme Court

Alaska surrogate McKenna West has asked the U.S. Supreme Court for an emergency stay blocking the removal of a newborn from a Dallas hospital amid a custody dispute with California couple Nausheen Gilkar and Omar Ahmed. The baby, born Aug. 12 with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, has undergone major heart surgery and remains hospitalized; the parties use different names for him, Gabriel and Rumi. West says she refused the couple’s request for an abortion after the fetal diagnosis and argues the child should remain in Texas while his medical care and her legal claims are resolved. Gilkar and Ahmed maintain that a California court properly recognized them as the legal parents under the surrogacy agreement, while a Texas court gave that judgment effect and dismissed West’s claims. West’s appeal alleges that California improperly treated her jurisdictional filings as consent and violated her due-process rights, and a guardian ad litem has sought changes to Texas orders concerning the infant’s care. The Supreme Court had not ruled as of the reports, and the baby’s current condition and the outcome of the emergency proceedings remain uncertain.