Baby M

The New Jersey court's finding that no contract can alter the legal position of a woman who bears a child as that child's mother seemed to settle the question of the status of surrogacy contracts in America, at least until technological advances permitting gestational surrogacy—in which a woman can bear and birth a child to whom she has no genetic relation—reopened the question in many jurisdictions.

At least in New Jersey, however, the Baby M. ruling continues as precedent. In 2009, New Jersey Superior Court ruled that In re Baby M applies to gestational surrogacy as well as traditional surrogacy cases, in A.G.R. v. D.R.H & S.H.. The intended parents were a homosexual male couple. They created an embryo using an anonymous donor ovum and the sperm of one of the husbands. The sister of the other husband carried the embryo to term and originally delivered the child to her brother and his husband, but a year later asserted her own parental rights even though she was not genetically related to the child. Judge Francis Schultz relied on In re Baby M to recognize the gestational mother as the child's legal mother. However, a later ruling in 2011 awarded full custody to the biological father.

After reaching the age of maturity in March 2004, Melissa Stern legally terminated Mary Beth's parental rights and formalized Elizabeth's maternity through adoption proceedings. When the controversy died down, Whitehead divorced her husband, remarried to Dean Gould, and had two more children, Austin and Morgan.

"I love my family very much and am very happy to be with them," Melissa told a reporter for the New Jersey Monthly, referring to the Sterns in 2004. "I'm very happy I ended up with them. I love them, they're my best friends in the whole world, and that's all I have to say about it."

The biological mother, Ms. Whitehead, wrote a book about her experience in 1989.

In 1989, Mary Beth Whitehead published her own book about her experiences, A Mother's Story: The Truth About the Baby M Case.

On February 3, 1988, however, the Supreme Court of New Jersey, led by Chief Justice Robert Wilentz, invalidated surrogacy contracts as against public policy but in dicta affirmed the trial court's use of a "best interest of the child" analysis and remanded the case to family court. On remand, the lower court awarded custody to the Sterns and Whitehead was given visitation rights.

An ABC Network miniseries, simply titled Baby M, was broadcast in May 1988. The miniseries starred JoBeth Williams as Mary Beth Whitehead, John Shea as William, Bruce Weitz as Mary Beth's husband Rick, Robin Strasser as Elizabeth and Dabney Coleman as Gary Skoloff. The miniseries received seven Emmy nominations, including Outstanding Miniseries, which it did not win. Williams, Shea, Weitz, and Coleman all received nominations for their performances, but only Shea won. Williams also was nominated for a Golden Globe for her performance.

In 1988, artist Martha Rosler made the video "Born to be Sold: Martha Rosler Reads the Strange Case of Baby M".

On March 31, 1987, New Jersey Superior Court Judge Harvey R. Sorkow formally validated the surrogacy contract and awarded custody of Melissa to the Sterns under a "best interest of the child analysis." During about a year of visits ordered previously by the Family Court, and visits allowed under the final decision, Whitehead took several actions either to claim the child, or incite the Sterns, including returning her wearing a hand-lettered shirt saying "I have a brother and sister."

Baby M (born March 27, 1986) was the pseudonym used in the case In re Baby M, 537 A.2d 1227, 109 N.J. 396 (N.J. 1988) for the infant whose legal parentage was in question.

On March 27, 1986, Whitehead gave birth to a daughter. She managed, initially, to get a birth certificate naming the infant Sara Elizabeth Whitehead. Three days after the birth, the infant was handed to the Sterns, who renamed her Melissa Elizabeth Stern. However, within three days of transferring physical custody to the Sterns, Whitehead went to them and demanded that the baby be given back to her, allegedly threatening suicide. The Whiteheads, though claiming Mary Beth Whitehead was suffering a debilitating post-partum bladder infection at the time, kidnapped the infant, and left New Jersey, taking the infant with them. The Sterns’ counsel applied for, and the country prosecutor issued warrants for their arrest.

In March 1984, Mary Beth Whitehead responded to an ad placed by the Infertility Center of New York in the Asbury Park Press seeking women willing to help infertile couples have children. She was a high school drop-out who had married Richard Whitehead, a truck driver with whom she had two children, Ryan and Tuesday. At roughly the time of her pregnancy with Baby M, Richard was in an accident. He failed to notice that a trailer carrying a full-sized bulldozer had detached from the large dump truck he was driving, as he passed through South Jersey's largest traffic circle.