There’s a hot news story that certainly has personal finance implications for William Marotta, a 46-year-old Kansas resident. Marotta may be forced to pay child support after the mother of the now 3-year-old girl he fathered through a sperm donation applied for public assistance, the Associated Press reports.
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The Kansas Department for Children and Families argues that because Marotta didn’t work through a clinic or doctor, as required by state law, he should be held responsible for about $6,000 that the child’s biological mother received through public assistance — as well as future child support, AP says. The state says it’s routine to try to determine a child’s paternity and require support payments to lessen the potential cost to taxpayers.
The Topeka-Capital Journal reports that Marotta donated sperm in March 2009 to a Topeka lesbian couple, Angela Bauer and Jennifer Schreiner, after responding to an ad they had placed on Craigslist. Marotta and the women signed an agreement in which he relinquished all his parental rights and responsibilities, according to the paper.
Schreiner stayed home to care for the eight children -- who range in age from 3 months to 25 years – whom she and Bauer were co-parenting (the couple have since broken up). But when Bauer couldn’t work because of an illness, Schreiner applied for public assistance for their daughter, the Topeka-Capital Journal reports. The state demanded Schreiner provide the sperm donor’s name, claiming that otherwise it would deny benefits because she was withholding information.
Marotta told the paper that he is “a little scared about where this is going to go, primarily for financial reasons.” He says he’s already had to spend thousands of dollars in attorney fees fighting the state of Kansas.
Let’s talk about this. The Color of Money Question of the Week: Do you think Marotta should be forced to reimburse the state and pay child support? Send your responses to colorofmoney@washpost.com. Be sure to include your full name, city and state. Put “Donor or Daddy” in the subject line.
Helicopter Parents
There’s another case in the news about parenting that I’d like to discuss.
Aubrey Ireland, a 21-year-old senior at the University of Cincinnati College – Conservatory of Music, recently filed a civil stalking order against her parents, David and Julie Ireland, saying that they installed monitoring software on her laptop and cellphone, allowing them to see her every keystroke and phone number dialed or received. She also says that they often drove 600 miles from Leawood, Kan., to visit her in school unannounced, reports Kimball Perry of the Cincinnati Enquirer.
The parents accused their daughter of illegal drug use, promiscuity and mental instability.
“It’s just been really embarrassing and upsetting to have my parents come to my university when I’m a grown adult and just basically slander my name and follow me around,” Aubrey Ireland said in a court hearing last year.
Clearly miffed by their daughter’s actions, the parents stopped paying for her tuition and demanded that she repay them the $66,000 they’ve already paid to the school. By the way, her parents so wanted her to have a successful musical and acting career that they paid her tuition to CCM even though Ireland was offered full scholarships to other schools, according to the report from the Cincinnati paper. When the parents stopped paying, the school gave Ireland a full scholarship for her final year.
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