Some contracts cannot be enforced under law if courts determine they are not in the best interests of the public or that they conflict with other laws. Contracts that lead to an illegality cannot be enforced. For instance, when the terms in a contract require one or all parties in a contract to perform a crime or engage in a fraudulent activity, the contract will not be enforced. Similarly, a contract that may cause injury to people or cause any kind of harm cannot be enforced. Therefore, public policy in contract enforceability relates to evaluation of a contract’s terms to the best interest of the public as well as the presence of any illegality or conflict with any other laws before the contract is enforced.
In the case of Baby M, the surrogacy contract was not enforced by the New Jersey Supreme Court on the premise of public policy. While Ms. Whitehead (the surrogate mother) agreed with the Stern’s to relinquish all the parental rights once the child was born, the contract could not be enforced because the terms conflicted with other laws at the time. For instance, the adoption law forbade any monetary payments but the Stern’s had paid Ms. Whitehead $10,000 for carrying the pregnancy (PACE Law Library, n.d). Additionally, a parent only gave up his or her parental rights to a child when it was determined that he or she was unfit to raise the child. In this case, Ms. Whitehead was fit to raise the child, and therefore, could not lose all her parental rights. Therefore, the public policy defense in Baby M’s case was mainly founded on the adoption law, which conflicted with the terms of the surrogacy contract.
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References
PACE Law Library. (n.d). Student project: Surrogacy research guide: In the matter of Baby M . https://libraryguides.law.pace.edu/c.php?g=452971&p=3156877
