In its infinite wisdom, or lack thereof, the U.S. State Department does not grant citizenship to babies born in vitro unless the American-born mother can prove that the egg or sperm donor was an American.
A child adopted by an American from another country is American. But a child born to an American via in vitro fertilization cannot claim American citizenship without proof that the donor was American. This can be difficult to establish since the mother may not be able to learn the identity of the donor, let alone his citizenship.
You can’t be too careful! The baby–or in this case–the twins, might be terrorists!
This is one of the rare instances where the insanity predates the current regime.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
What a joke! It’s about time we kept lawyers from writing our laws.
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How do “they” ever know who was actually the baby’s father, in vitro or not?
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That’s just crazy! If you haven’t seen it yet, you should all watch My Name is Khan. Bring a hankie, too.
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Insane! If this doesn’t prove insanity, what does?
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Insanity before 45 … unbelievable but quite true … YES!
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Truly unbelievable! Our new administration just may start investigations….that will shake up the spermicide banks, to say nothing about disrupting families, But Trump’s a pro at that.
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BR, Spermicide banks?
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Born in Vitro?
Isn’t that in Kenya?
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It might be in Kenya, but it’s probably in Hawaii; don’t bother with maps or birth certificates, though. Geography is hard. Actually, I am pretty sure Vitro is in Latin. Latin is in Vatican City. That’s in Italy, sort of. It’s like Washington D.C. being in Virginia. To tell you the truth, I haven’t understood much of anything in Washington D.C. for years. It’s rheally all Greek. That’s in Greece.
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I like your logic!
Unlike most legalese, it actually makes sense.
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So… this is like if an American goes to Brazil for a boob job and comes back — can she enter at the border but not her boobs unless she can prove that the silicon implants were made in the USA? What if you get a kidney transplant in Thailand? Do you need a separate passport for the organ?
Absolutely and insanely ridiculous and offensive.
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This is one of the rare instances where the insanity predates the current regime.”
Unfortunately, instances of insanity predating the onerous, despicable Trump regime were NOT so rare.
The Bush/Cheney illegal war of aggression, based on lies sold to us by a complicit media, especially the NY Times (Judith Miller) and Washington Post was the most obvious example of violent, brutal insanity, destroying a nation “to save it”.
The Bush/Cheney torture program created more terrorists.
The Bush bank bailout after the 2008 economic collapse, while ordinary homeowners lost their homes, is another example.
Obama then refused to prosecute the Bush/Cheney torturers, despite his oath of office which included obeying the law, and the U.S. had signed the U.N. Convention Against Torture late last century. That message, that the U.S. would not prosecute war criminals, created more vengeful terrorists.
Obama then went before a bankers’ group and said he was the only one standing “between them and the pitchforks”, so they’d better work with him to save their skins. He then proceeded to continue the Big Bank Bailout while giving a woefully insufficient stimulus to Main Street.
Obama’s ACA/Obamacare was originally born at the right-wing Heritage Foundation, adapted by Mitt Romney in Massachusetts, then further adapted, with insurance industry help, by Obama, while Obama and Nancy Pelosi took both single-payer health care (favored by most Americans) and the public option (created to divert action on single-payer) off the table while Democrats had majorities in BOTH chambers of Congress and Obama had very high approcal ratings in 2009.
As with the economic advisers Obama had even before his first election, most of them from Citibank and Goldman Sachs, Obama consistently did the bidding of Wall Street before the needs of Main Street. No wonder it has taken so long to see even a little improvement in the REAL economy of working people, not the stock market. That ignoring of the real needs of Main Street, especially in the Rust Belt and rural America, did NOT go unnoticed by all those still suffering in the Great Recession. No wonder so many (foolishly) voted against Hillary and for Trump.
Obama inherited Bush’ illegal war crime of drone bombing people all over the planet without declarations of war by Congress or approval by the U.N., then proceeded to send out 10 times as many drone bombings as Bush did, killing thousands of innocent civilians. Again, that created more terrorists wanting vengeance.
Obama further expanded NATO and U.S. forces eastward, continuing the Bill Clinton & Bush policies, egged on by his Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, so that Russia, with its terrible history of devastating invasions from the West (Napoleon in 1812, U.S. & Allies in 1918, Hitler in 1941), has good reasons to fear yet another attack. Having lost more than 25 million people killed in World War II, no Russian leader will ever again allow an invasion. But Obama, through Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, a neocon married to a key neocon, Robert Kagan, and a protege of Hillary Clinton, funded the February 2014 in Kiev which replaced the elected, but Russia-leaning government of Ukraine with a U.S. puppet government which includes neo-Nazis who hate Jews and Russians. Again, this is insane.
Obama & Hillary accepted the 2009 military coup in Honduras, because of U.S. corporate interests, and continued to aid the military government which has presided over increased murders of environmentalists (such as Berta Caceres) and labor activists. It’s no wonder people are fleeing Central America and Mexico (the drug war is a war on Mexicans) and coming north to theU.S. But the U.S. continues its violent policies there and acts surprised that people want a safer, better life here.
In 2011, in Libya, at the urging of Hillary Clinton and France, the U.S. and NATO (NATO is a U.S. proxy force because the U.S. funds 70% of NATO’s budget) illegally waged war under another lying pretext, that Gadaffi was committing genocide. Gadaffi had used his country’s oil wealth to give the people of Libya the highest standard of living on the continent of Africa, including free education and health care. But he no longer was “our” dictator, and his oil was not accessible to the Fossil Fools Corporations who are driving accelerating Climate Disaster, so he had to go. Hillary chortled at his brutal torture death: “We came. We saw. He died”.
Pursuing the same ruinous, murderous policies and expecting things to improve is certainly a vicious, violent form of insanity. Every U.S. administration since at least 1945 is guilty of that, but it has intensified since 9/11/01.
Read Noam Chomsky, William Blum, and John Pilger.
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Well stated ed
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Ed, thank you for a brief summary of the last 10 years of American politics. Sometimes we miss the forest when we live amongst the trees. The American forest is looking pretty ugly, even if I am standing next to a pretty tree.
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At first I thought this was from the Onion . Then again, I mistake Trump for Alec Baldwin every time he opens his mouth. I now understand why the Republicans want to give employers the right to conduct DNA tests . Much better than show me your papers please .
May I take a mouth swab before you enter the voting country/ voting booth. I see you have 5% Hispanic genes. Could explain please .
But don’t worry that was the old boss by the time Trump is done the embassy staff wont exist.
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(I am a former employee of the US State Department). You are incorrect about individual children adopted outside of the USA. If an American person adopts a foreign-born child in a foreign country, the child is NOT an American. As a dependent/relative of a US Citizen the child can get a green card, and reside in the USA.
If the adoptee wishes to become a US Citizen, he/she must complete the naturalization process, like any other immigrant.
(My first wife was Chinese, my current wife is Russian, I have assisted in the naturalization process twice). I like to say that Larisa went from a Red to a Red, White, and Blue.
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Wrong. In 2000 President Clinton signed a law that any foreign born child adopted by US citizens is automatically granted citizenship.
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My mistake. An adopted child of a US citizen is automatically eligible for citizenship , if certain criteria are met. see
http://www.alllaw.com/articles/nolo/us-immigration/how-foreign-born-adopted-children-get-citizenship.html#
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WRONG. This is not correct. Take a look at the Constitution. A child born in the US is an U.S. citizen, even if both parents are illegal aliens. And a child born to a U.S. citizen abroad is a US citizen if certain conditions are met, none having to do with this issue. It only takes about 5 minutes to check something like this out. Please be careful with what you post, especially when it can be so easily researched,
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“None having to do with this issue”– the linked article cites the state dept’s interpretation of the law on this issue, as well confirmation by an American lawyer specializing in fertility, & an egg-donor parent advocacy group which advises folks on how to avoid running afoul of the state dept’s application of the rules.
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Obama appointing Arne Duncan (after campaigning leading us to believe that someone like Linda Darling Hammond would be named) was insanity.
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Obama’s entire education policy would be considered insane by any objective sort of measure.
What sane person attacks and undermines the very people who are involved in educating our children in order to “improve” education?
The big lie was that Obama would restore science as the basis of decision making. There was absolutely no science in his education policy whatsoever.
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Story is from 2012, but seems like it still applies. See
https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/legal-considerations/us-citizenship-laws-policies/assisted-reproductive-technology.html
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This is from the INS website. Note that a parent who carries to birth a child that is not genetically related to the birth mother is treated as any other child so long as the jurisdiction where the birth occurs treats her a a parent. There is no need to prove citizenship of the sperm donor or the egg donor.
Volume 12 – Citizenship & Naturalization, Part H – Children of U.S. Citizens
Chapter 2 – Definition of Child for Citizenship and Naturalization
A. Definition of Child
The definition of “child” for citizenship and naturalization differs from the definition used for other parts of the INA. [1] The INA provides two different definitions of “child.”
•One definition of child applies to approval of visa petitions, issuance of visas, and similar issues.
•The other definition of child applies to citizenship and naturalization.
]* * *
In general, a child for the citizenship and naturalization provisions is an unmarried person under 21 years of age who is:
•The genetic, legitimated, [5] or adopted son or daughter of a U.S. citizen; or
•The son or daughter of a non-genetic gestational U.S. citizen mother who is recognized by the relevant jurisdiction as the child’s legal parent.
The term “genetic child” refers to a child who shares genetic material with his or her parent, and “gestational mother” is the person who carries and gives birth to the child. A genetic parent, as well as a non-genetic gestational mother who is recognized by the relevant jurisdiction as the child’s legal parent, is included within the phrase “natural” parent as referenced in the INA. [6]
In general, absent other evidence, USCIS considers a child’s birth certificate as recorded by a proper authority as sufficient evidence to determine a child’s genetic relationship to the parent (or parents). The child’s parent (or parents) who is included in the birth certificate is presumed to have legal custody of the child absent other evidence. [7]
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As long as mom is a citizen then baby is a citizen wherever the birth occurs, at least under present US law.
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I do not understand. I thought that if a woman is American then the citizenship of the father doesn’t matter, the child is American. The same if only the father is American.
Apparently, the land where the child is born is more bonding for citizenship than the parents. Weird stuff—one more thing the Constitution allows…
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From the article “The U.S. State Department says a child born outside the USA to an American cannot receive citizenship until a biological link with at least one parent is established. That link does not exist if an infertile woman uses donor eggs at a clinic to conceive.”
But the woman gave birth to these kids. That’s not a biological link, only conception is? So the law wants to be there at the moment of conception; it wants to supervise it. Perverted stuff.
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Some day, the government will undoubtedly have a nano-bot that is quite literally “there” at the moment of conception.
It will be capable of analyzing the sperm and egg DNA and also GPS equipped to precisely determine location (geographic, not pornographic)
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SDP,
That will occur about the same time that the government installs an ID device that checks the gender on your birth certificate and then inspects your genitals to see if they match.
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Please go to the INS website for the correct information on this subject. The original blog is wrong and just nonsense.
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If a child is born in the US, he or she is a US citizen (with some minor exceptions not relevant here). The citizenship of the parents does not matter. That is why a child born to illegal aliens in the US is a citizen, a so called “anchor baby.” A child born to a US mother abroad will be considered a citizen if certain conditions are met. None of those conditions relate to this issue. In short, the original blog post is just nonsense. I would have thought that a professor would have been more careful before posting this type of “junk facts.”
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“Born in Vitro”
Born in Vitro
Vitro city
Glad to meet, yo
Mamma’s pretty
Pretty mad
She had you there
By foreign dad
In Vitro Square
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I love your poetry. Here’s some prose. Make Vitro Great Again. Vitro First. Vitro Citizens United to give Americans opportunities to apply for Vitro citizenship by opening an In Vitro Charter Academy. It was sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. (They’re actually collecting blastula data, so it makes sense.) Demand a voucher to raise chickens in Vitro. Make Chicken Soup Great Again In Vitro.
OK, I must stop procrastinating now, and grade Common Core essays with the Common Core grading rubric. Students in Vitro First.
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Glad you enjoy it.
I have fun writing it — my primary reason for doing it, actually.
“The goofier the better” is my motto, if you didn’t recognize that already.
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Makes visiting Diane’s place more enjoyable. Lighthearted is usually good hearted. Wish I could ditch the Common Core texts and bring you to my classroom instead. We’d have ’em laughing and rhyming and learning for the fun of it.
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The pure fun of school, I say!
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That would get you fired for sure.
Not sure I want that on my conscience.
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Ha! DAM.
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This would, of course, only apply if the baby is born outside the U.S. Any baby born in the U.S. is a citizen by birthright.
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I don’t get it. No one knows my daughter was conceived in vitro. It’s not on her birth certificate. My French husband was the sperm donor. We got her an American passport as well as a French one. Is Trump going to come for us?!!
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That’s because the blog is wrong. This is made up nonsense.
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