The Dallas Surrogacy Case

The story so far

As of August 26, 2026

An interstate surrogacy and medical-ethics fight centered in Texas pits an Alaska surrogate, California intended parents, and the Texas attorney general over who controls care for a baby with a severe heart defect. The dispute tests which state’s laws govern parental rights and medical decision-making in a cross-border surrogacy contract. It matters for how far Texas courts and officials can reach when pregnancy and birth intersect with contested care.

Tensions rose late in the pregnancy after the diagnosis became the flashpoint in the arrangement. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton obtained an emergency court order to protect the unborn child while the parties argued over next steps. The surrogate, McKenna West, had declined an abortion requested by the intended parents after the diagnosis, a choice that set up the current collision between private agreements and state action.

West delivered a baby boy in Dallas on August 13. The infant is in the custody of the intended parents and receiving care at a Dallas hospital. Texas court orders require hospitals to provide lifesaving treatment and bar West from interfering with the biological parents’ medical choices, pulling the case under active Texas court supervision as decisions about surgery and transfer are made. Paxton’s office remains a participant in the post-birth fight.

What is at stake now is immediate decision-making power for complex cardiac care and the reach of Texas jurisdiction that flows from a Dallas birth and an emergency order secured before delivery. The core questions are which court controls custody and consent right now, whether the surrogacy contract and any parentage claims from California carry force in Texas, whether the child can be moved out of Texas during treatment, and how long state supervision lasts. The hinge facts that explain the rest are the place of birth, the standing emergency orders on treatment and noninterference, and the current placement of the newborn with the intended parents.