Despite a court ruling against them, a Florida couple vows to continue their legal battle to gain custody of a child born by the woman they hired as a surrogate, but who then decided to keep the baby.

The issue, Tom and Gwyn Lamitina say, is not about Florida surrogacy law, which clearly gives the woman the right to the child. They are fighting for Tom Lamitina's rights as the father of the child.

"We filed an appeal, Scott Alan Salomon, the attorney for the couple, told TODAY co-host Meredith Vieira when all three appeared on the program Tuesday.

"The trial judge overstepped his

bounds. He had no right whatsoever to terminate parental rights in a paternity action."

Gwyn Lamitina, 46, said the couple wants custody of the child they think is rightfully theirs.

"We would ultimately like to have primary cus-tody," she said. "If the judge deems that [the surro-gate] has visitation, we would be up for that." The child, Emma Grace, was born five months ago to Stephanie Eckard, whom the Lamitinas had met through an online site on which women who want to be surrogates advertise their availability.

Fokard, 30, is a teacher and a single mother o two other children of her own. According if tomon, she had delivered three surrogate dig Sain for other couples before mecting the lamit. nas. Eckard lives in Jacksonvile, in the norther narner of the state, while the lamitinas live in the Central Florida town of Oviedo. Eckard has de clined all requests to be interviewed. unBut a month after Eckard became pregnant, she and the Lamitinas had a confrontation over bok ard's smoking. Eckard broke off contact and de. cided to keep the child as her own. The Lamitina had paid her $1,500 to carry the child.

The Lamitinas have never seen the girl. "Thaven' known anything about her," Gwyn Lamitina tot Vieira. "I had to find out she was born through the

press."

Because Emma Grace was conceived with Eckard's egg and not Gwyn Lamitina's, Florida law gives Eckard the absolute right to decide to keep the child up until 48 hours after the birth. The trial court upheld that law on Oct. 11.

For that reason, Florida surrogacy lawyer

Charlotte Danciu told NBC News in a recorded in-terview, "Couples should never let a surrogate use her own egg.

As Danciu said, the law in Florida is very clear: A surrogate pregnancy with the surrogate's own egg is treated as an adoption and the birth mother can decide to keep the child, even if there is a signed contract. Tom Lamitina is the father of the child, but the law treats him as a sperm donor with no parental rights.

"That is absolutely incorrect," said Salomon. "A sperm donor is one that signs a contract that says ! am waiving my parental rights. Tom voluntarily paid money to give a woman his sperm. He is not a sperm donor. He was doing this with the sole intent to become a father. That's the biggest joke of this whole case."

He said the Lamitinas case is rightly a paternity case in which Tom Lamitina is seeking custody of his own daughter.

"Half of this child's DNA is Tom's, Salomon said. "The judge unilaterally said, We don't care about that. You have no rights."Vieira asked if there is a legal precedent for that claim, to which Salomon replied,

"There will be

one now?"*

Should the father have any rights to the child in this case? Is Florida law correct in giving the surrogate the right to decide to keep the child up until 48 hours after the birth, even if she had signed a surrogacy contract? In determining the custody of a child, should who gestates it carry more weight than genetic links to it (that is, where the egg and sperm come from)? Should genetic or gestational links carry more weight than the ability to properly care for the child?