The U.S. Supreme Court will rule if children conceived by in vitro fertilization following the death of their father can receive Social Security benefits.

The high court will decide if the Third Circuit Court of Appeals was correct in ruling that twins born four years after the death of their father qualify as his children under the Social Security law of the 1930s.

Robert Capato provided semen for deposit in a sperm bank in 1999. After he died of esophageal cancer in March 2002 while a resident of Florida, his widow, Karen, underwent in vitro fertilization with his sperm. She gave birth to twins in September 2003. She had conceived naturally and given birth to a son in 2001.

Karen Capato filed for survivors benefits on behalf of the twins, but the Social Security Administration rejected her claim. An administrative law judge also denied benefits, saying Florida law permits children to inherit personal property only if they are conceived before a parent’s death. A federal judge in New Jersey agreed with that decision.

The Third Circuit, based in Philadelphia, Pa., overturned the lower court, ruling dependence on state law was not required in this case. According to the court of appeals, “the undisputed biological children of a deceased wage earner and his widow [are] ‘children’ within the meaning” of the Social Security law.

[Editor’s note: This article is incomplete. The source for this document was originally published on Baptist Press—however, the link (URL) to the original article is unavailable and has been removed.]