Legal Recognition Of 3-Plus-Parent Families Slowly Expanding

Many families looking for legal recognition of more than two parents do not involve polyamory.

Excerpt: This week on the podcast, we interviewed Dr. Ian Jenkins, who is the author of Three Dads and a Baby. Joining him on the podcast were both of his life partners — yep, both. Jeremy and Alan. Check it out here. The three dads — an internal medicine doctor, a clinical psychologist, and a zookeeper — share a life that might remind some people of a 1980s sitcom. But their situation is actually a very modern family story: the “throuple” used egg donation and surrogacy to have their two children. While the novel relationship dynamics of any throuple are apt to garner attention, some of the most fascinating aspects of the story are actually the legal steps that the three men took to protect their family structure, in a system very much designed for two parents.”

Ellen Trachman is the Managing Attorney of Trachman Law Center, LLC, and a regular contributor to the ‘AboveTheLaw’ platform.