SEARCH FOR A SURROGATE

When James Noyes, 32, flew home to Rochester earlier this month, he left his two-month-old son behind in Arcadia, Calif., and there is a good chance he will never see him again. Noyes and his wife Bjorna, 28, unable to produce children, had had his sperm injected into Nisa Bhimani, 29, a California widow and mother of three. But during her pregnancy, Bhimani decided she wanted to keep the child. Noyes sued for custody. Then, just before the trial, he withdrew his suit, partly to avoid publicly divulging his wife's transsexuality--which came out, in court documents. That tidbit has since been publicized anyway, so Noyes, a truck driver who has invested more than $5,000 in his quest, may renew the custody fight.

As matters stand, he is listed on the birth certificate but has no visitation rights. The presiding judge, Robert Olson of Los Angeles County Superior Court, believes that surrogates should always be free to change their minds and predicts that states will begin enacting laws dealing with such situations. Meantime, the tussle is likely to make prospective clients more wary of this increasingly popular arrangement.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.