The Georgia Supreme Court recently held that the irrebuttable presumption of paternity does not apply when a child is conceived by way of in-vitro fertilization. This is an important development for families in Georgia considering alternative methods of conception.
The case involved a divorce that was filed during the same time period that the mother was undergoing in-vitro fertilization treatments. She sought to establish paternity for the child by setting aside the divorce decree entered in the case so that she could include the child in the marital settlement agreement and the father resisted. The trial court denied her efforts. So she filed a paternity suit to establish the father’s legitimacy, relying on the Georgia law that provides that his written consent to fertilization treatment created an irrebuttable presumption of paternity, and that effort was successful. The father appealed from that decision.
The Supreme Court distinguished in-vitro from artificial insemination, and reversed the trial court, holding that paternity was not established in this case.