What makes someone a legal parent? How easy is it for courts to decide who should be a child's legal parent? With advances in assisted reproductive technology (ART), such as surrogacy and in vitro fertilization (IVF), more people, both within and outside of the traditional mother-and-child relationships biological father, have a chance of having a child. These families are made up of single parents but also same-sex couples. In same-sex relationships, a third party must be involved, who can be either a surrogate mother or a male donor. This leaves the child with more than both biological parents. How do authorities determine who will benefit the child most? Courts attempt to determine legal parents based on the best interests of the child, but their decision gives biological parents more rights over other individuals. Unfortunately, this discriminates against same-sex couples because only one partner can be the biological parent. This closed judgment from the courts and society demonstrates that both parties do not understand the abilities of same-sex couples to raise a child. Many partners in nontraditional relationships lose involvement in their child's life because courts make conventional decisions that do not recognize same-sex marriages. Everyone should have the same opportunity to raise a child because, as many successful adoptions show, a biological connection is not necessary for a person to be the best parent for a child. There are more and more lesbian co-mothers. ART contributed to a significant increase in the number of lesbian and gay people choosing to raise genetically related children (Goldstein 412). Most lesbian couples have obtained a child either from a previous heterosexual relationship or through alternative insemination where the child then has two mothers and a male donor. One of the main questions is how appropriate is it for a lesbian couple to raise a child? Society seems to discriminate against same-sex couples. As mentioned previously, one reason is that there are more than two possible parental figures. People within society are concerned about this because it is not a traditional family type. They believe that a child should have both a male and female figure represented in a family to create an ideal environment..