Sherri Shepherd Is The Mother!

Lamar Sally, Jr., Sherri's son.
Too bad it took a judge to tell her so

During her tenure on The View, Sherri Shepherd met and married Lamar Sally. She had him on the show. She seemed quite happy. He got a long well with her autistic son, Jeffrey, from a previous marriage. Everything was going to well that Sherri and Sally decided to have a baby. They needed a surrogate and got one. Sherri consented to and signed a contract to pay the surrogates bills and be the unborn child’s mother. Sherri did not provide any genetic material, but Sally’s sperm was used and he is the biological father. During the surrogate’s pregnancy there was trouble in paradise. Sherri started having issues with Sally not working and staying home all day. She had doubts about the marriage. She had doubts about the baby. She filed for divorce and said she wanted nothing to do with the baby, it was not hers biologically and she wasn’t responsible for it. The baby was due to be born any day. Sally filed a court case to declare Sherri the mother and make her financially responsible for the son in his custody. Sherri’s defense was Sally tricked her into having the baby in order to get her money. The case has been going on over a year.

Yesterday a judge ruled that Sherri Sherherd is in fact the mother of little Lamar Sally, Jr. who is now eight months old and adorable. In addition to the legal documents that Sherri signed going into this agreement, the judge also considered some video clips from The View in which Sherri spoke of how happy she was that she and Sally were having a baby and how excited she was about it. Sherri wasn’t at the hearing when the ruling was delivered, but I wish I could have been there to hear what the judge had to say.

From the facts of the case, you wouldn’t think there was any question about Sherri’s moral and financial responsibility concerning her son. She contracted with a surrogate to have a baby for her and her husband. But, when it was not longer “convenient,” when life took an unexpected turn, she decided she no longer wanted to be this child’s mother nor help to support him grow up. What kind of woman does such a thing? The child was days from being born and she is all over the media declaring it’s not her baby and she wants nothing to do with it. She wanted to be relieved of her parental rights and responsibilities, just like that. She even offered Sally $150,000 to be free of him and the baby. He turned her down.

Too many people aren’t taking their decision to have a baby seriously enough. Regardless of whether you conceive a baby naturally, adopt, use artificial or scientific means, once you make that commitment there is no turning back. What if instead of a surrogate, Sherri was the one who was pregnant? Would she have been fighting for full custody of the baby or given it away? Sherri went into this agreement/commitment with her eyes wide open. There had to have been lawyers advising her of her rights and obligations. She knew what she was signing and was happy to do it. She chose to bring another human being into this world and agreed to be his mother and nurture and raise him. Then, in the months between the time it took for the surrogate to be impregnated and before the baby was born, Sherri had a change of heart. She was divorcing her husband and had no desire to even see the baby she was responsible for bringing into the world. Can she be that cold hearted? Apparently so and maybe, feeling the way she does, she doesn’t deserve to be that baby’s mother. The judge, however, ruled that her name will be going on the birth certificate and she will be responsible, at least financially, for the support of her son. But, the judge can’t make Sherri be a mother. That little baby has already been placed at a serious disadvantage in life, and will grow up knowing that the woman who had the most say in his being here, rejected him before he even set foot into the world.