Hart v. Chater

(SSA Mar. 11, 1996) ; Clearinghouse Number: 50779

Description

Social Security Administration Commissioner Grants Survivors’ Benefits to Child Conceived After Her Father’s Death

Abstract

After consulting with the Department of Justice, the Commissioner of the Social Security Administration (SSA) has decided to grant claimant social security survivors’ benefits. Claimant is a four-year-old child who was conceived by gamete intrafallopian transfer three months after her father’s death. Claimant’s father, facing medical treatment likely to render him sterile, had donated sperm before his death with the intent that his wife be impregnated with it. After claimant’s birth, claimant’s mother applied for survivors’ benefits for herself and her child. Finding that claimant was not the "natural child" of the deceased wage earner, SSA denied the claim. In federal court, claimant alleged that the Social Security Act and provisions of Louisiana’s intestate succession statutes denied legitimacy, heirship, and survivors’ benefits to children who are born through reproductive technologies and whose conception occurs after the father’s death. The Commissioner of SSA found that recent advances in modern medical practice necessitated a review of current laws and regulations to ensure equitable social security payments in cases such as this and that denying claimant benefits pending resolution of the significant policy issues this raised would be inappropriate.

Additional Information

Attorney Information
Plaintiff represented by Diane Curtis, Kathryn Kolbert, Susan Weiler, Center for Reproductive Law and Policy, 120 Wall St., 18th Fl., New York, NY 10005, (212) 514-5534; William Rittenberg.
Docket Date
1996-03-11 00:00:00+00:00