Should Posthumously Conceived Kids Get Social Security Survivor Benefits?
The Social Security survivor benefit is a payment designed to help families cope with the unexpected loss of a parent. Given that rationale, it’s hard to understand the reasoning behind giving the benefit to a child conceived by a woman using her dead husband’s stored sperm. But as The Wall Street Journal reports, that’s what happens in several states in the country. The question of whether such children should receive those benefits has led to an increasing amount of litigation, and the Journal profiles one case that has reached the Utah Supreme Court, a case that shows the profound unfairness of the murky status of benefits for these children. Around a year after her husband died of cancer, Gayle Burns conceived her son, Ian, using her husband’s sperm. Social Security paid Ian survivor benefits that eventually totaled $35,000, before abruptly deciding that the benefit was not owed and suing to be repaid. Ms. Burns was forced to declare bankruptcy as a result. Ms. Burns is now suing t
