RNS-LAW-PARENT

Doug Okun, 47, (L) and Eric Ethington, 46, spend a Sunday afternoon crafting Christmas presents with their twin daughters Sophia Ethington (L), 9, and Elizabeth Ethington, 9, at the dining room table of their Piedmont, CA home on Sunday, December 2, 2012. Okun and Ethington, had to work with four lawyers in two states before the California couple could ensure that their twin daughters are legally theirs. This is a potential cover or centerpiece looking at the complex legal world of gay families, artificial reproductive technologies like IVF and gestational surrogacy, and family law. Laws and court rulings on who is mom, who is dad, vary from state to state, even county to county.

Doug Okun, 47, (L) and Eric Ethington, 46, spend a Sunday afternoon crafting Christmas presents with their twin daughters Sophia Ethington (L), 9, and Elizabeth Ethington, 9, at the dining room table of their Piedmont, CA home on Sunday, December 2, 2012. Okun and Ethington, had to work with four lawyers in two states before the California couple could ensure that their twin daughters are legally theirs. This is a potential cover or centerpiece looking at the complex legal world of gay families, artificial reproductive technologies like IVF and gestational surrogacy, and family law. Laws and court rulings on who is mom, who is dad, vary from state to state, even county to county.