- Today the mother of five year-old twins conceived posthumously asked a federal district court to review the Social Security Administration's (SSA) denial of benefits for her children. The Center for Reproductive Rights filed a lawsuit in the Tucson Division of Arizona District Court against the SSA seeking a reversal of the initial 1996 decision. This lawsuit comes a week and a half after the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled in a similar case that children conceived posthumously can be considered legal heirs.
"The Social Security Administration has flaunted Arizona state law and the requirements of the federal Social Security Act, while denying the legal and constitutional rights of children," stated Hagit Elul, an attorney with the Center for Reproductive Rights who represents the plaintiff.
Rhonda Gillett-Netting and Robert Netting, a professor at the University of Arizona, were trying to conceive a child when he was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a form of cancer, in December 1994. During his illness, the couple made the decision to continue with in-vitro fertilization treatments, even in the advent of his death. He lost his fight with cancer in February 1995. The twins were conceived after his death and were born August 6, 1996.
Three years after Rhonda Gillett-Netting first filed for benefits, a SSA administrative law judge denied her claims based on his interpretation of Arizona state law. In determining whether an applicant is the "child" of an insured individual, the SSA is required to follow the state laws regarding inheritance. Arizona law states that children are entitled to inherit from their biological parents. In December 2001, Gillett-Netting was informed that the SSA Appeals Council, the highest appeals level with the administration, had denied her claim. As a result, todayÂ’s filing in federal court is the next step.
Similar cases have been filed in Louisiana, New Jersey, and Massachusetts. Both the New Jersey and Massachusetts state courts have found that posthumously conceived children are entitled to inherit under state law, while in Louisiana the children ultimately received SSA benefits.
Rhonda Gillett-Netting and her children are represented in Gillett-Netting v. Barnhart by Bebe Anderson and Hagit Elul of the Center for Reproductive Rights, and local cooperating counsel Michael Owen Miller of Quarles & Brady Streich Lang LLP in Tucson. The named defendant is Jo Anne B. Barnhart, Commissioner of Social Security.
