BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 1049|
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CONSENT
Bill No: AB 1049
Author: Patterson (R)
Amended: 4/22/15 in Assembly
Vote: 21
SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: 7-0, 6/16/15
AYES: Jackson, Moorlach, Anderson, Hertzberg, Leno, Monning,
Wieckowski
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 78-0, 5/4/15 (Consent) - See last page for
vote
SUBJECT: Parent and child relationship
SOURCE: Academy of California Adoption Lawyers
DIGEST: This bill states that a person's offer or refusal to
sign a voluntary declaration of paternity may be considered as a
factor, but shall not be determinative as to the issue of legal
parentage in any proceedings regarding the establishment or
termination of parental rights. This bill additionally requires
a nonattorney donor facilitator to direct his or her client to
deposit client funds in an independent, bonded escrow account or
a trust account maintained by an attorney.
ANALYSIS:
Existing law:
1)Establishes the California Uniform Parentage Act and defines a
parent and child relationship as the legal relationship
between a child and the child's natural or adoptive parents,
incident to which the law confers or imposes rights,
privileges, duties and obligations. (Fam. Code Sec. 7600 et
AB 1049
Page 2
seq.)
2)Provides that paternity may be established by voluntary
declaration for unmarried parents, which has the same force
and effect as a judgment for paternity issued by a court of
competent jurisdiction, as specified. (Fam. Code Secs. 7570
et seq., 7612.)
3)Defines a person as a presumed parent if, among other things:
a) The person was married to the child's mother and the child
was born within 300 days of the marriage; b) the person
attempted to marry the child's mother; or c) the person
receives the child into his or her home and openly holds the
child out as his or her own. (Fam. Code Sec. 7611.)
4)Prohibits, generally, a child with a presumed father from
being adopted without the consent of the birth parents, if
living. (Fam. Code Sec. 8604.)
5)Defines "assisted reproduction" as conception by any means
other than sexual intercourse, and defines "assisted
reproduction agreement" as a written contract that includes a
person who intends to be the legal parent of a child born
through assisted reproduction and defines the terms of the
relationship between the parties to the contract. (Fam. Code
Sec. 7606.)
6)Defines a surrogacy facilitator as a person who advertises for
the purpose of soliciting parties to an assisted reproduction
agreement or acts as an intermediary between the parties to an
assisted reproduction agreement, or charges a fee for services
rendered relating to an assisted reproduction agreement.
7)Requires "surrogacy facilitators" to direct clients to deposit
all client funds in an independent, bonded escrow account or
attorney trust account. (Fam. Code Sec. 7961.)
This bill:
1)Provides that a person's offer or refusal to sign a voluntary
declaration of paternity may be considered as a factor, but
shall not be determinative, as to the issue of legal parentage
AB 1049
Page 3
in any proceedings regarding the establishment or termination
of parental rights.
2)Defines "donor" for the purposes of the above surrogacy
provisions as a woman who provides her oocytes for use by
another for the purpose of assisting the recipient of the
oocytes in having a child or children of her own.
3)Defines a donor facilitator as a person who advertises or
solicits the donation of oocytes for use by a person other
than the provider of the oocytes, or charges a fee for
services rendered relating to oocyte donation.
4)Requires donor facilitators to direct clients to deposit all
client funds in an independent, bonded escrow account or
attorney trust account.
Background
Every year, the Academy of California Adoption Lawyers (ACAL)
seeks to clarify or modify provisions in the Family and related
codes which they have identified as having either technical
errors or as being the basis for conflicting court rulings that
could potentially prolong the adoption process. Accordingly,
this bill, sponsored by ACAL, makes various changes related to
adoption, including clarifying that an offer to sign a voluntary
declaration of paternity, alone, is not determinative as to the
issue of legal parentage, and requiring donor facilitators to
place funds for donor services in an escrow account, as
specified.
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal
Com.:NoLocal: No
SUPPORT: (Verified6/19/15)
Academy of California Adoption Lawyers (source)
American Society for Reproductive Medicine
Infant of Prague
AB 1049
Page 4
OPPOSITION: (Verified6/19/15)
None received
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT: Infant of Prague, a central California
adoption service, writes with respect to the provision related
to offers to sign voluntary declarations of paternity:
In contested cases, unilateral offers or refusals to sign such
declarations may be considered by a court, but have never been
deemed dispositive of parenthood. Unfortunately, a recent
appellate court opinion confused these long standing statutory
standards by issuing a blanket holding that could allow any
man to secure parental rights merely by offering to sign a
voluntary declaration at any time-even long after the baby is
born. This holding eviscerates more than 20 years of case law
and is discriminatory on its face, in that a mother's offer or
refusal to sign the declaration is not accorded the same
weight and does not establish or increase any parental rights.
AB 1049 thus contains a narrow technical fix to preserve a
court's discretion to weigh the facts of each case in their
entirety, and to thereby ensure that voluntary declarations of
paternity remain truly voluntary.
With regard to the requirement to payments for ova donation, the
Academy of California Adoption Lawyers, sponsor, writes:
These statutes do not explicitly require the same fiscal
protections for women who have entered into agreements to
donate ova or eggs. This leaves egg donors open to ongoing
fraudulent practices that render them vulnerable to financial
abuse. AB 1049 addresses this problem by specifically
requiring escrow of funds related to an ova/egg donor. By
adding this clarification to assisted reproduction statutes,
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Page 5
AB 1049 ensures consistent standards of fiscal responsibility
apply across California family law.
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 78-0, 5/4/15
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Travis Allen, Baker, Bigelow, Bloom,
Bonilla, Bonta, Brough, Brown, Burke, Calderon, Chang, Chau,
Chávez, Chiu, Chu, Cooley, Cooper, Dababneh, Daly, Dodd,
Eggman, Frazier, Beth Gaines, Gallagher, Cristina Garcia,
Eduardo Garcia, Gatto, Gipson, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gray,
Grove, Hadley, Harper, Roger Hernández, Holden, Irwin, Jones,
Jones-Sawyer, Kim, Lackey, Levine, Linder, Lopez, Low,
Maienschein, Mathis, Mayes, McCarty, Medina, Melendez, Mullin,
Nazarian, Obernolte, O'Donnell, Olsen, Patterson, Perea,
Quirk, Rendon, Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez, Salas, Santiago,
Steinorth, Mark Stone, Thurmond, Ting, Wagner, Waldron, Weber,
Wilk, Williams, Wood, Atkins
NO VOTE RECORDED: Campos, Dahle
Prepared by:Nichole Rapier / JUD. / (916) 651-4113
6/19/15 14:51:54
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