Should a baby conceived by in vitro after father's death be eligible for SSI?

[pnwmom]

89. And that has been used as an anti-abortion argument. I think the argument would be much stronger

in this case, where there wasn't even a fetus at the time of death, just a vial of sperm.

Here's an interesting discussion.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57400083/can-kids-inherit-sperm-donors-federal-benefits/

"What if the Capato twins were born four years after the death in this case?" asked Chief Justice John Roberts. "... So what happens if the biological mother remarries or something and then goes through this process?"

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg pointed out that adopted children have to be through the adoption process before one of their parents dies to get benefits. "There is a time limit for other children," Ginsburg said.

And then there's the difference in state inheritance laws. Karen Capato had tried to argue that they should have been considered citizens of New Jersey, which has different inheritance laws from Florida. The twins were conceived in Florida, but during the pregnancy Karen Capato moved to New Jersey.

"I don't see how you're going to save us from even worse problems, particularly when I started looking at the state of the artificial insemination and so forth, and every state has a dozen different variations," of inheritance law," Breyer said. "... It's a very complicated subject. And that's why I am rather hesitant to read it the way you want."
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Some more questions here.
http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/19/us/scotus-posthumous-conception/?hpt=ju_c2


"Let's assume Ms. Capato remarried but used her deceased husband's sperm to birth two children. They are the biological children of the Capatos. Would they qualify for survivor benefits even though she is now remarried?" asked Justice Sonia Sotomayor. "A situation like that is what is making me uncomfortable, because I don't see the words 'biological' in the (federal) statute. I don't see the word 'marriage' directly, within the definition of 'child.'"

SNIP

Sotomayor jumped in: "I am interested as to what your definition of child is. Is it just a biological offspring? Is it limited to a biological offspring born of a particular marriage? But in what context?"

Rothfeld struggled to respond.

"What if the Capato twins were conceived four years after of the death in this case?" asked Roberts. "Would your argument be the same?"

"These children were born 18 months after the insured wage earner died," said Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. "If we look to other categories of children -- say, stepchildren, and there is also one for adopted children -- they qualify only if they had that status no less than nine months before the wage earner died, and adopted children there is also a limitation. The stepchild and the adopted child, there could never be any question of being born 18 months later. They wouldn't qualify. There is a time limit for the other children. And if Congress had thought about this problem, maybe it would put a time limit on this, too."

SNIP