[troutman]

I was waiting for someone to post this story.

What is unique about this case:

When a single mother seeks benefits for a child, it’s routine for the department to try to determine the child’s paternity and require the father to make support payments to lessen the potential cost to taxpayers.

Court records show that Marotta, Schreiner and Bauer signed an agreement in March 2009, with the women agreeing to “hold him harmless” financially. The agreement also said the child’s birth certificate would not list a father.

But the state contends the agreement isn’t valid because a doctor wasn’t involved.

Under a 1994 Kansas law, a sperm donor isn’t considered the father only when a donor provides sperm to a licensed physician for artificial insemination of a woman who isn’t the donor’s wife. The result is an incentive for donors and prospective mothers to work with a doctor, de Rocha said.

The general rule is strict liability for sperm.