Overview
- McKenna West delivered the baby in Dallas on Wednesday, and the infant is now in the physical custody of intended parents Nausheen Gilkar and Omar Ahmed while receiving specialist pediatric care.
- Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton intervened and a Dallas judge issued emergency orders requiring life‑sustaining treatment and preventing the baby’s transfer or discharge from the state.
- A California court had recognized Gilkar and Ahmed as the child’s legal parents, but West’s attorneys contend Texas birth‑mother rules make her the legal mother and say they may appeal the matter up to the U.S. Supreme Court.
- The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights sent hospitals a letter reminding them that federal disability civil‑rights rules prohibit withholding medically indicated treatment because of a patient’s condition.
- Legal experts say the dispute could trigger litigation over which state law controls parentage and medical decision‑making and could prompt changes to how surrogacy contracts and parentage orders are enforced while the baby faces immediate, complex surgeries for hypoplastic left heart syndrome.