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Senate committee hears bill to adopt Uniform Parentage Act, donor‑info bill proposed
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Summary
The Health and Social Services Committee heard testimony on SB 250 to adopt the Uniform Parentage Act (2017), intended to modernize Delaware law for families formed through assisted reproduction; a companion bill (SB 236) would preserve donors' medical history for donor‑conceived people.
Senator Pinkney, chairwoman of the Senate Health and Social Services Committee and prime sponsor, told the committee on April 8 that Senate Bill 250 would update Delaware parentage law to reflect advances in assisted reproduction and to recognize the intent of people who plan a child as a basis for parentage.
"This bill helps to provide clarity in those situations by recognizing intent…as a valid way to establish parentage," Senator Pinkney said, explaining the measure adopts the Uniform Parentage Act of 2017 to address outcomes such as when a genetic parent dies before embryo transfer or when families use gestational carriers or donated genetic material.
Experts from the Uniform Law Commission and the Division of Legislative Services explained the changes in more detail. Libby Snyder, a staff attorney with the Uniform Law Commission, told senators the act modernizes Delaware's 2002 provisions, moves to gender‑neutral drafting and clarifies the legal status of donors, gestational carriers and intended parents so children have clear legal ties at birth. Mark Catrona, a lawyer with the Division of Legislative Services, said much of the existing legal framework already supports many of these outcomes, and the bill makes targeted updates and clarifications.
A related measure, SB 236, would require fertility data centers to retain nondisclosing medical history about gamete donors so donor‑conceived people — or their parents while minors — can access medical information needed for medical care. Senator Lawson, who introduced SB 236 as a supplement to SB 250, said the bill would allow medical history to be preserved while limiting identifying information until an individual requests it after age 18.
Donor‑conceived witnesses told the committee why the bills matter. Eve Chigalov, an eighth‑grade student who identified herself as donor‑conceived, described a recent illness and told senators she and her family lacked the family medical history clinicians needed: "This bill ensures that anyone conceived through donation is notified of their status and is given access to their biological family's medical history," she said, urging the committee to pass SB 236.
Supporters — including the Uniform Law Commission and advocacy groups representing donor‑conceived people and LGBTQ families — told the committee the legislation reduces legal uncertainty that can leave parents unable to act for a child and can block children from benefits such as health insurance or survivor benefits when parentage is unclear. Some public commentators asked that the parentage and donor‑information provisions be considered together; others raised ethical questions about commercial surrogacy and privacy that were presented as concerns in submitted written testimony.
No committee vote was recorded in the hearing. Sponsors asked the committee to report the bills favorably and to move them to the floor; committee members asked for follow‑up details on particular drafting points before taking further action.
