The genetic tie.

A friend of mine recently questioned my interest in the "Baby Jessica" saga. "Why are you always so fascinated by those stories?" he asked. "They have nothing to do with Black people." By "those stories," he meant the myriad of disputes occupying the headlines that involve biological claims to children. These custody battles test the importance in American law and culture of the genetic tie between parents and their offspring. How much weight should the state give this genetic relationship in settling custody disputes between biological parents and adoptive parents? Should the state honor a father's wish for a genetic inheritance in considering the legality of surrogacy contracts? Should the state respect a woman's decision to destroy frozen embryos because she no longer wants to be genetically linked to the potential children? Current debates involving surrogate mothers, un-