6-Day-Old Rumi Undergoes 1st Heart Surgery as Surrogacy Fight Widens Across 3 States
Updated
Updated · CNN · Aug 18
6-Day-Old Rumi Undergoes 1st Heart Surgery as Surrogacy Fight Widens Across 3 States
3 articles · Updated · CNN · Aug 18
Summary
Doctors in Texas performed a high-risk Norwood procedure on 6-day-old Rumi, born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome; his parents said he is now recovering in critical but stable care.
The surgery became the latest flashpoint in a dispute that began after a prenatal diagnosis, when intended parents Omar Ahmed and Nausheen Gilkar sought termination under their surrogacy contract and surrogate McKenna West later carried the pregnancy to term.
California had already recognized Ahmed and Gilkar as the baby’s legal parents, while Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton intervened before birth to require life-sustaining care and keep the infant in Texas, then withdrew on Wednesday.
West, backed by anti-abortion groups that flew her to Texas and helped secure legal counsel, says she is protecting the baby’s life; the parents say her custody claims defy court orders from Alaska and California.
The case has grown beyond one family dispute into a test of fetal personhood arguments, abortion politics and the patchwork legal rules governing surrogacy in the United States.