I'm no expert in this matter, but I always knew there was something called birthright citizenship, which basically assures that children of American citizens are automatically granted U.S. citizenship when they're born… Well, apparently not if the children are born overseas via in-vitro fertilization and the parents can't prove that at least one of the donors is an American citizen too! Say what?
Yes! And American citizen, Ellie Lavi, who lives in Israel, found out about this the hard way. When she went to the U.S. embassy to register her children, the single mom of two girls born via in-vitro, was asked if she had conceived her babies at a fertility clinic. When she said yes, she was told her request would be denied unless she proved that one of the donors was American–which is practically impossible thanks to clinic's confidentiality agreements.
So, even though Lavi, who was born in Chicago, carried her twin girls in her womb for nine months and then gave birth to them herself, birthright citizenship doesn't apply to her daughters. How crazy is that?
The State Department says the law was created to prevent people from obtaining American citizenship fraudulently, but as applied in this case, it sounds completely ridiculous and outdated to me. I mean, children adopted by U.S. citizens or born to foreign citizens (like is the case with many within the undocumented community) are granted status as American citizens, so why can't children of American citizens born through in-vitro fertilization get the same treatment. The law needs to keep up with technology!
No wonder many women who are living overseas and become pregnant via in-vitro fertilization come back to the States to give birth or lie to officials at U.S. embassies overseas, as the founder of Parents Via Egg Donation told USA Today.
What do you think about this? Should children born overseas to American citizens be granted U.S. citizenship?
Image via Ellie Lavi/facebook
