A surrogate mother, McKenna West, 28, has filed an emergency plea with the U.S. Supreme Court, seeking to halt a California court order that recognizes Omar Ahmed and Nausheen Gilkar as the legal parents of a four-week-old infant. The child, whom West calls Gabriel and the biological parents call Rumi, was born on August 12 with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, a condition requiring significant medical intervention.
West, who refused to terminate the pregnancy despite the diagnosis, is requesting custody or conservatorship, asserting her belief that the biological parents will not provide the child with necessary life-saving care. Her attorneys argue that the California ruling, which recognized Ahmed and Gilkar as parents, was issued in violation of federal due process, claiming West was given insufficient notice and improper service when brought into that court.
The case is further complicated by the infant's critical condition and the biological parents' intent to potentially move the child to California for hospice care, despite ongoing medical treatment in Texas. West's legal team contends that the child could be removed from the Texas hospital before the Supreme Court has an opportunity to review the case, potentially leading to a halt in life-saving care.
Ahmed and Gilkar previously stated that West violated their surrogacy contract and obtained a restraining order preventing her from seeing or holding the child. They have described the surrogacy as their only option after multiple failed IVF attempts and Gilkar's hysterectomy. Their legal counsel argued that West refused an amniocentesis test that would have definitively determined the baby's candidacy for surgery. The biological parents acknowledged requesting West terminate the pregnancy due to the baby's complications but denied intending to refuse medical care.
Surrogacy laws are not federally regulated, with each state maintaining its own specific regulations, creating potential legal ambiguities. Legal experts suggest that the Supreme Court rarely intervenes in family disputes and that obtaining emergency relief is exceptionally difficult, making the odds of the appeal being granted low.