In the Matter of Baby M: 1987

On February 2, 1988, the Supreme Court of New Jersey invalidated the surrogacy contract, restored Mary Beth Whitehead's parental rights, and annulled the adoption of Baby M by Betsy Stern. "We do not know of, and cannot conceive of, any other case," Chief Justice Robert Wilentz wrote for the unanimous court, "where a perfectly fit mother was expected to surrender her newly born infant, perhaps forever, and was then told she was a bad mother because she did not." After invalidating the surrogacy contract, the justices classified the dispute as one between "the natural father and the natural mother, [both of whose claims] are entitled to equal weight." The court granted custody to William Stern and ordered the trial court to set visitation for Mary Beth Whitehead.

The decision permitted future surrogacy arrangements in New Jersey only where "the surrogate mother volunteers, without any payment, to act as a surrogate and is given the right to change her mind and to assert her parental rights."

By 1992, 16 other states had passed legislation outlawing or restricting commercial surrogacy contracts.

During the appeals process, Mary Beth Whitehead divorced her husband Richard and married Dean Gould. The two have since had two children. Occasionally, Whitehead speaks out in support of other surrogate mothers, hoping to help other women avoid what she went through.