THE DAILY DILEMMA: DID SHE SAVE A LIFE OR BREAK THE DEAL?

McKenna West is an Alaska nurse who agreed to carry an embryo for a California couple, Nausheen Gilkar and Omar Ahmed. Because the embryo came from the intended parents, West has no biological connection to the child.

At about 20 weeks, doctors diagnosed the baby boy with hypoplastic left heart syndrome. That means the left side of his heart did not develop properly. It is a rare, life threatening condition that usually requires three major surgeries, with the first performed shortly after birth.

That is when everything changed.

West says the intended parents wanted her to terminate the pregnancy and pressured her to follow their decision. She refused. The couple tells a different story. They say West initially agreed to the termination, later changed her mind and stopped communicating with them. They also deny that they ever intended to deny the baby medical treatment after birth.

West traveled from Alaska to Texas and asked a Dallas court for the authority to protect the baby’s medical care. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton stepped in, and a judge ordered that the child receive medically necessary, life sustaining treatment and not be removed from Texas while the case was being considered.

West gave birth in Dallas on Wednesday, August 12, about two weeks early. The baby is now receiving specialized medical care. West calls him Gabriel, while his parents named him Rumi.

Here is another major fact. A California court recognized Ahmed and Gilkar as the baby’s legal parents. They now have custody and the authority to make his medical decisions. West was prevented from presenting herself as the child’s parent and reportedly was not allowed to see him after the delivery. She is continuing her legal fight.

Then there is the contract. The parents claim West broke the surrogacy agreement. West says she was warned that she could be held responsible for as much as $250,000 if she refused the termination. That figure remains part of the disputed legal claims. It is not a final judgment against her.

West said the child’s life did not have a price tag and that she could not have lived with herself if she had ended the pregnancy.

But the intended parents say they are the ones living through a family tragedy. They say they have always put their child’s health first and accuse West, Paxton and outside advocacy groups of turning their private medical crisis into political theater.

Surrogacy is growing in America. CDC figures show that embryo transfer cycles using gestational carriers rose from 2,841 in 2011 to 9,195 in 2019. These arrangements usually begin with detailed contracts covering compensation, medical care, custody and what happens when doctors discover a serious fetal condition. But surrogacy laws are not uniform across the country. This agreement was made in Alaska, the parents went to court in California, and West delivered in Texas. That is how one pregnancy became a multistate legal fight.

We had a former surrogate on the show who carried twins about ten years ago. She put it bluntly. You have to enter the arrangement understanding that you are the oven. You are carrying the baby, but the baby is not yours to keep.

Those words sound simple until the person carrying that child is asked to make a decision she believes she will regret for the rest of her life.

Did McKenna West save a child’s life, or did she break an agreement and interfere with the rights of the child’s legal parents?

Check out Madd Hatta’s Daily Dilemma weekdays afternoons on Majic 102.1.