Marybeth Whitehead

Mary Beth Whitehead (born Mary Beth Messer; 1957/1958) is an American woman whose dispute with William and Elizabeth Stern over a traditional surrogacy agreement became known as the Baby M case. In 1988, the Supreme Court of New Jersey voided the paid surrogacy contract as contrary to law and public policy, restored Whitehead's parental status with visitation, and awarded custody to the child's biological father, William Stern, based on the child's best interests.

The case drew intense national attention and has been widely discussed in news coverage and legal scholarship for its influence on U.S. surrogacy law and debates over reproductive rights and adoption policy.

Background Whitehead was born Mary Beth Messer in New Jersey, the sixth of eight children in a large working-class family. Leaving school at fifteen, she married young and became a mother at seventeen. In her memoir A Mother’s Story, she later wrote that she had “grown up believing that the purpose of my life was to have children.”

Her parents, Joseph and Catherine Messer, lived in Holiday, Florida, where they followed the Baby M hearings from afar. Contemporary reports described the Messers watching televised coverage of the New Jersey court proceedings and reacting with shock as Judge Harvey Sorkow awarded custody of the infant to William Stern and upheld the surrogacy contract. Catherine Messer was quoted as saying she was “devastated” by the decision and felt her granddaughter had been “stolen,” while Joseph Messer questioned what rights grandparents possessed under such rulings.

Whitehead, married and the mother of two, entered into a traditional surrogacy contract arranged through the Infertility Center of New York. The agreement provided that she would be artificially inseminated with William Stern's sperm, carry the pregnancy, and, after birth, relinquish her parental rights so that Stern's wife, Elizabeth, could adopt the child; Whitehead was to receive $10,000 plus expenses.

Baby M Birth and dispute Whitehead gave birth to a girl on March 27, 1986; she named the child Sara Elizabeth, while the Sterns called her Melissa.

Trial A nonjury trial in New Jersey Superior Court in early 1987 enforced the surrogacy contract, terminated Whitehead's parental rights, and awarded custody to William Stern, permitting Elizabeth Stern to adopt the child.

New Jersey Supreme Court decision On appeal, the Supreme Court of New Jersey unanimously reversed key parts of the trial ruling in 1988. The court held that the paid surrogacy contract violated statutes prohibiting payments connected with adoption, conflicted with laws requiring parental unfitness before termination of parental rights, and was contrary to public policy; however, the court affirmed the award of custody to William Stern based on the child's best interests and restored Whitehead's parental status with visitation.

Aftermath and later life Following the litigation, Whitehead—by then sometimes identified as Mary Beth Whitehead-Gould—spoke publicly about her experience and life after the case, including in a 1989 feature that reported she was expecting another child and adjusting to the outcome while maintaining visitation rights. Popular coverage, including news features and retrospectives, continued to revisit the case as surrogacy became more common in the United States.

In popular culture The case inspired the ABC miniseries Baby M (1988), part of the broader media coverage that brought surrogacy debates to national attention.