Law: A Split Decision

With the "Baby M." case still unresolved, another surrogate dispute ended in San Diego last week with an unorthodox divided custody. High School Science Teacher Mario Haro and his wife Nattie say her second cousin, Alejandra Munoz, agreed in 1985 to bear a child for them for a $1,500 fee but then demanded more money. Munoz, 20, claims the Haros had falsely assured her that after three weeks the embryo would be implanted in Nattie Haro. The child, Lydia Michelle, was born in June. The settlement approved by a judge will permit Munoz to see the child several days a week, and will give her $50 a month in child support. The case signals how common such disputes may become. Munoz and the Haros, who wrote their own brief surrogate contract, used a syringe to accomplish the artificial insemination without a doctor's involvement.