Q: Hello, my brother recently helped my partner and I by donating sperm to help us have a baby. What are my rights

A: Pennsylvania does not seem to have statutory language addressing assisted reproduction in any manner.

Pennsylvania's legislature has been studying the issue. There is an Assisted Reproductive Technologies subcommittee of the Pennsylvania Joint State Government Commission, which was formed in 2005. If you are looking for someone to contact for more information, a referral or to potentially hire, check out Lawrence A. Kalikow, http://pasurrogacy.com/ . He is chair of the committee according to his website.

By way of background, many states have enacted legislation governing parentage and sperm donation. Nearly half the states have adopted some version of the Uniform Parentage Act (UPA), first promulgated in 1973. This type of statute typically provides that a partner who consents in writing to the insemination of the significant other under the supervision of a physician is considered the legal parent of any resulting child. The statues also make clear that a donor who provides semen to a licensed physician for use in artificial insemination of someone other than his wife is not considered a legal father of the child. Some states have now adopted a version of the UPA revised in 2000, which does not require that the donor provide the sperm to a licensed physician to be considered a non-parent. In addition, some states have statutes that allow the parties to avoid this presumption of non-parenthood if the parties enter into a written agreement that the donor will have parental rights.

A: The best way to secure your rights would be to adopt the child. This is a fairly straight forward process.

If you do not adopt, you may still have some rights if you have been acting as a father to the child for some significant period of time.