Assisted reproduction: children conceived posthumously entitled to inheritance rights.

Abstract

In a decision addressing one of the many legal and ethical complexities created by modern reproductive technologies, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts ruled on January 2 that under specific circumstances children conceived after a parent’s death are entitled to inheritance rights under the Massachusetts law of intestate succession.In Woodward v. Commissioner of Social Security, the court addressed whether twins conceived from frozen sperm and born two years after the father’s death from leukemia have specific inheritance rights under state law and are consequently eligible for certain federal survivor benefits. After the Social Security Administration (SSA) denied benefits to Mrs. Woodward’s daughters on the grounds that “she had not established that the twins were the husband’s ‘children’ within the meaning of the [U.S. Social Security] Act,” Mrs. Woodward brought suit in federal court against the agency. In this case, eligibility for SSA benefits turned on whether the children would be treated as the husband’s natural children for the disposition of his personal property under the Massachusetts law of intestate succession. Because no directly applicable Massachusetts legal precedent existed, the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts asked the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts to rule on the question of the children’s inheritance rights under state law.