New York does not allow commercial surrogacy and New Yorkers opt to go for some other place where surrogacy is legal to have children from there. A male gay couple from New York had taken up surrogacy in California. The embryo was created out of the egg from an egg donor and sperm from one of the gay couple. On birth of the child, pursuant to the standard California practice, they approached a court there, along with the surrogate mother and her husband and obtained a pre-birth order naming the gay couple as the parents of the twin to be born. The twins were born in the year 2001 and the names of the gay parents appeared on the birth certificate.

Later, the gay couple broke up. The parent, who is genetically related to the child filed for child support in the New York Family court.  It was argued by the defendant, who was genetically unrelated to the child, that parentage deriving from surrogacy was not recognized in the New York and hence he was not liable to pay the child support. On October 4 2010, Magistrate Rachel Parisi rejected that argument. It was noted by her that there is no public policy exception to the enforcement of judgments from courts in other states. The parentage decision was entitled to recognition in the New York. She also relied on a 2005 ruling that New York statutes contemplate that a court will determine parental rights and responsibilities even when a child has been born from a surrogacy arrangement.

This decision is significant for number of New Yorkers who take up international surrogacy. This decision also highlights the importance of having a parental order on birth of the child.