ABikerSailor
Diamond Member
A couple of weeks ago, I started a thread on the personhood bill and what kind of effect it would have on American citizens who got invitro fertilization outside of the US, and what kind of problems a person might encounter.
Guess what................it's happened for real........................
Born to American mom, in-vitro twins denied citizenship - TODAY News - TODAY.com
It seems that if she had been married to the donor, and it had been her egg, she could have been considered a US citizen born abroad of US parents, but because the egg and sperm were donated by foreign citizens, even though she carried the child to term in HER body, unless she files for adoption status, her children have no country.
Discuss...............
Guess what................it's happened for real........................
A pair of twin girls may have come from the womb of a Chicago native, but in the eyes of the government, they are children without a country.
Ellie Lavi, an American citizen living in Israel, wanted her children to be American as well, despite the fact that they were born in Israel. But her twin daughters, Maya and Shira, now 2 ½ years old, are unable to gain status as U.S. citizens. Lavi, a single mother in her 40s, used a donor sperm and egg from a clinic in Israel to conceive her children through in-vitro fertilization. Now, the U.S. State Department is refusing to grant citizenship to her children because she is unable to prove that any of the donors are American citizens.
I have been embarrassed, humiliated, horrified, ashamed, Lavi told NBC News.
When Lavi went to the U.S. Embassy in Israel to register her children, she said she was asked over a loudspeaker in a crowded room by an embassy official how she conceived the children.
Its an outrageous question, she said, recalling the experience. She later left the embassy in tears after more questioning.
Children adopted by U.S. citizens or born to foreign citizens in the U.S. are granted status as Americans. However, as Lavi was informed, children born to Americans overseas through in-vitro fertilization are denied American citizenship unless a donor can be proved to be a U.S. citizen. The laws were created to prevent people from fraudulently attaining status as Americans.
They are my kids, I carried them for nine months, but they cant be American, Lavi said. U.S. policy is not keeping up with the technology. Thats essentially what the issue is.
Born to American mom, in-vitro twins denied citizenship - TODAY News - TODAY.com
It seems that if she had been married to the donor, and it had been her egg, she could have been considered a US citizen born abroad of US parents, but because the egg and sperm were donated by foreign citizens, even though she carried the child to term in HER body, unless she files for adoption status, her children have no country.
Discuss...............