•Surrogate mother McKenna West and newborn baby’s legs
A 28-year-old surrogate mother in the United States is facing a lawsuit from the biological parents of a baby she carried after she refused their request to terminate the pregnancy following the discovery of a serious heart defect.
McKenna West, the gestational surrogate of “Baby Gabriel”, has been sued for US$100,000 by his biological parents, who claim that her refusal to have an abortion violated their surrogacy contract.
According to a report by TMZ on Thursday, Nasheen Gilkar and Omar Ahmed filed a countersuit against McKenna West weeks before she gave birth to their baby in Texas.
Gilkar and Ahmed had agreed to pay West $60,000 to serve as a surrogate, with an abortion clause in their agreement allowing them to terminate the pregnancy if problems with the foetus were discovered, according to the lawsuit.
However, at about 20 weeks into the pregnancy, the baby was diagnosed with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, a rare and life-threatening congenital heart defect.
The intended parents subsequently requested that West terminate the pregnancy, but she refused.
West instead travelled to Texas, where she gave birth to the baby on August 12.
She named the child Gabriel, while the biological parents insist that his name is Rumi.
The lawsuit was filed before the child’s birth on August 12. In it, biological parents Nausheen Gilkar and Omar Ahmed are requesting US$100,000 in damages, plus an additional unspecified amount for “malicious, outrageous conduct”.
In court documents, the child is referred to by the name Rumi
chosen by his biological parents. Before his birth, he was known in the media as “Baby Gabriel” given to him by West.
