Sperm Donor Or Established Parent? Courts Will Revisit Jason Patric’s Controversial Custody Case

“Jason Patric, star of the 1980s teen vampire flick The Lost Boys, won on appeal Wednesday the right to establish that he is the father of a four-year-old boy conceived through in-vitro fertilization with a former lover who he never married,” Time magazine reported on May 14. 

The circumstances surrounding their son, Gus’s, birth were muddled. Patric originally agreed to have the child with live-in ex-girlfriend Danielle Schreiber, after trying and failing to conceive naturally. Schreiber later moved out and informed Patric of her intentions to raise the child as a single mother. “Patric wrote Schreiber a letter saying that he was not ready to be a father, but that it was okay for her to use his sperm to conceive as long as she told no one about the arrangement,” Time continues.

In spite of this arrangement, Patric regularly visited Schreiber and his son. The 80s star formed a close bond with the boy, demonstrating “a committed relationship with his child,” according to The Wall Street Journal. Schreiber cut off Patric’s contact to the child when they formally split again in June 2012. A court ruled in Schreiber’s favor in February 2013, stating that Patric served as a sperm donor only.

“An appellate court overturned that decision Wednesday, ruling that the California statute at issue did not apply if the couple was purposefully trying to have a child together, the Hollywood Reporter reports,” Time writes. “The court held that the original law was intended only to allow women to receive sperm donations without having to fear a paternity test in the future and that men could donate sperm without being forced to pay child support.” Thanks to the appellate court’s decision, officials will formally revisit the case.

“This case is different than commercial sperm donor cases because it involves a personal relationship, where Patric volunteered to be a a sperm donor for someone he already knew, and had a relationship with.” says Greg Enos, Family Law Attorney. “In this case, I believe the court got it right.”