When Is a Sperm Donor a Dad?

Aug. 4, 2008 — -- Being a sperm donor makes a man a biological father, but it also may make him financially responsible for his offspring, according to a New Mexico Appeals Court that sided with a mother seeking child support from a man with who fathered her two children via artificial insemination.

The ruling comes from a case involving Janna Mintz, who asked her friend Kevin Zoering to donate sperm during the mid-'90s, when she and her then same-sex partner decided they wanted a child.

"At the time I felt like my biological clock was ticking," Mintz said. "I was really interested in him as a father for these children because he was artistic. He's a musician; it seemed like it would be a nice combination of genes."

The pair signed an agreement, which did not ask or require Zoering's financial support. After the birth of Mintz's son, she said Zoering took an active part in the child's life.

"He absolutely loved the child — absolutely was so proud to be a father, proud to have a son. And we have pictures of him just beaming with his son," she said.

In fact, things went so well that Mintz asked Zoering to donate sperm again so that she could have a second child, which resulted in a daughter, and Zoering's personal involvement with the children increased over time.

"Kevin was taking our son a couple of mornings a week, watching him in his home. And I was working part time. And he was really enjoying the time that he spent with his son," Mintz said. "As they got older, we set up a visitation schedule, and the children would go back and forth, and they [sometimes] spent weekends."

But when Zoering began making demands about things like where the children lived, problems developed, according to Mintz. So, in 2000 she tried to clarify Zoering's legal role, which included the question of child support.

What resulted was an eight-year battle for Mintz and the man she said is more than a sperm donor.

"My children think of Kevin as their father and they always have. He's been in their lives since the days that both of them were born. And they call him 'Dad,'" she said. "I think fatherhood and parenthood is about the rights and responsibilities of taking care of children, all the rights and responsibilities."