And Baby Makes One

On Aug. 13, 1994, at the University of California, Irvine, an embryo from anonymous egg and sperm was implanted into Snell's uterus. John and Luanne, and Pam and Randy Snell, signed a contract that acknowledged the uncertainty surrounding surrogacy, including a warning that the use of third-party donors has "no predictable outcomes." That was only too prophetic when the Buzzanca marriage broke up.

Two weeks after the contract was signed, John moved out of the house, according to John Stabile, his attorney. (Buzzanca wouldn't comment.) John never wanted to be a father, Stabile says, and went along with Luanne's idea to use a surrogate because she was desperate for a child. He argues he can't be ordered to support a child who had not been declared legally his. Luanne remembers that John "didn't like spending all that money," but she says he wanted a baby as badly as she did.

The legal battle began when Jaycee was 6 months old and Luanne filed for child support from John. If Monarch's decision leaving Jaycee parentless sounds heartless, the judge was only following California law defining "fatherhood." John wasn't the genetic father; he wasn't the adoptive father; he wasn't married to the mother at the time the child was born, and he wasn't providing for the child in some way. And Luanne, Monarch said, didn't fit the established "mother" definitions--she was neither the gestational nor genetic mother.

Luanne could end the legal mess by adopting Jaycee. But she refuses, insisting the contract is valid. So that leaves it to the appeals courts. In a preliminary ruling last year the court of appeal hinted that John and Luanne should be considered Jaycee's parents. The court suggested that by signing the surrogacy contract, John was responsible for Jaycee's conception "every bit as much as if he had caused her birth the old-fashioned way." There's an old saying that you don't get to pick your parents. For Jaycee, that's never been truer.

BABY MAKING

John Buzzanca - Luanne Buzzanca After many tries at having a child, the Buzzancas pay to have one made for them.