by Victor Koman
"Today I gave up Jennifer for the second time."
"It's what you wanted. Both times."
She nodded. "Renata is a lovely name, too."
"She's beautiful."
Valerie pressed her hands against the cool, smooth window. "I'm sorry I lost the case for you." He shrugged, leaning his hands against the window frame. "I didn't lose. I walked off. It turned out the way you wanted, didn't it?"
"Only the trial."
He glanced over at her for an instant, then looked back at Renata. "I'm sorry about what I did. About the way I've acted." He nodded toward his daughter. "You know, I never saw her until just now." Valerie's hand moved slowly down the glass to touch his. "Isn't she wonderful?" His hand grasped hers, held on for dear life. "You don't re-gret losing her?" She shook her head. "I lost her eight months ago. I've only just found her." She stood on her toes as high as she could to see more of Renata. After a moment, she lowered to face Ron. "She may be Karen and David's daughter now, but we gave her something no one else could. I'll never again take that miraculous gift for granted."
Ron pulled her gently close and wrapped an arm around her. "You gave her that gift twice." He held her tightly as her arms drew him near. "More than anyone, you're a part of her. Now and forever." Valerie felt the warmth of his body against hers. She turned her head to look through the glass and plastic at the tiny fig-ure inside. She gazed at Renata. And saw the future.
Epilogue
FIRST TRANSOPTION
DOWN UNDER
UPI
BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA planted the fetus-safely recov--Just three months after the ered from an abortion-into the well-publicized Baby Renata womb of a 31-year-old house-case in the United States, doc-wife from Sydney. tors at Victoria Hospital an-The revelation has caused
nounced the successful transop-some public outcry, with calls
tion of a six-week-old fetus for legislation to ban or at least
from one woman to another. heavily regulate the new proce-Drs. James Whyte and Divaker dure. Ramanan report that they trans-
TRANSOPTION
DOC LEAVES U.S.
UPI
LOS ANGELES-Despite a
grand jury's failure to indict Dr.
Evelyn Fletcher on criminal
charges in last year's notorious
Baby Renata case, the disgraced
surgeon departed the United
States Tuesday under the cloud
of her continued suspension of
credentials by California's State
Board of Medical Quality Assur-ance.
BABY RENATA
CELEBRATES
BIRTHDAY
First Transopted Baby
Times Wires Service
T O R R A N C E - R e n a t a
Chandler, whose birth last
year caused a legal upheaval
when it was revealed that she
had been transplanted from
one woman to another while
still an embryo, celebrated her
first birthday amid the glare of
TV cameras and photo
strobes.
A blond, blue-eyed
charmer, Renata showed off
her two front teeth in a happy
grin as her so-called genetic
mother and father-Valerie
Dalton and Ron Czernek-joined with "transoptive"
mother Karen Chandler and
her husband David for the fes-tivities.
Also on hand was Dr. Eve-lyn Fletcher, who pioneered
the controversial medical pro-cedure. Now conducting her
practice at a clinic in Brazil,
Fletcher used the opportunity
to consult with her attorney
regarding reinstatement of her
medical license in the United
States.
LOCAL BISHOP PRESSES FOR
PAPAL DECISION ON TRANSOPTION
Opponents Say Would Mock Virgin Birth
Associated Press
BOSTON-Bishop John Robert Shriver today ex-pressed dismay at the Pope's refusal to comment on transoption.
"In the last two years," the bishop said, "over four
thousand transoptions have been performed around
the world. Many of the donors and recipients have
been Catholics." In light of the Church's opposition to
abortion, Shriver said, "many view transoption as the
only moral alternative. While the Church has not
spoken against transoption, it also has not spoken in
favor of it."
Bishop Shriver's attempts to gain a papal audience
have been futile, he said, and so he has gone public
with his request "in the hope that Catholic women will
make their opinions known."
MAN GIVES BIRTH
TO OWN SON!
UPI of surgeons, Dr. Fletcher suc-LOS ANGELES-A San cessfully attached the fetus to a Francisco man gave birth today blood-rich section of the outer
to his own son in what doctors surface of Edwards's large in-call a revolutionary medical testine. miracle. Kept under constant medical
Derek Edwards, a 25-year-supervision, Edwards spent half
old northern California resi-a year at the hospital until the
dent, was in LA with his wife, birth yesterday morning-by
Jane, six months ago when she Cæsarean section-of the baby
was fatally injured in a traffic boy. Three weeks premature
accident. Before she fell into an and weighing only four pounds,
irreversible coma, she pleaded three ounces, John Edwards is
with doctors to save her unborn nonetheless healthy despite a
child. She was ten weeks' preg-surrogate pregnancy described
nant. by the father as "absolutely ter-When the hospital admini-rifying." stration refused to search for a "I woke up every morning
female volunteer, Edwards of-with the fear that Jane's only
fered his own body and the child might not survive her by
threat of legal action if they re-very long. He's alive and well,
fused to transopt the fetus. Re-though, and my wife's last wish
luctantly, the hospital agreed to has come true."
perform what was to be the first The press and friends of the
above-ground transoption in the family were able today to visit
United States. the father, who gained forty
A legal furor erupted when pounds during the pregnancy.
Dr. Evelyn Fletcher was flown Doctors attribute the weight
in from South America to per-gain to hormonal adjustments
form the operation. Administra-made by the fetus.
tors at Otis Chandler Memorial "Lactation was the strangest
Hospital, though, stood by their side effect," Edwards quipped.
decision, stating that Fletcher "The doctors aren't sure I can
should be treated no differently nurse, though, so I think I'll use
from any other visiting foreign bottles when I get out of here." specialist. Working with a team
FLETCHER ADMITS
FREEZING FETUSES
hope that someday a way
Never Performed Abortions, might be found to revive
Doctor Says in Interview
Associated Press them and implant them in
SÃU PALO-In an exclu-recipient mothers."
sive interview with the British In all, Dr. Fletcher froze
science magazine Nature, Dr. 3,618 fetuses, all of which
Evelyn Fletcher admitted that are being stored in secret lo-she had always planned to de-cations around the United velop transoption as a viable States. U.S. officials, con-alternative to abortion. In her tacted by Nature, could find years at Bayside University nothing illegal with the unor-Medical Center, she said, she thodox method of storage. preserved every fetus she re-When asked,
Dr. Fletcher
moved from women undergo-admitted that "probably very
ing abortions. few" of the fetuses could be
"I could have disposed of expected to survive the
them in any number of ways," freezing and thawing pro-she said from her clinic in Bra-cess. "But even one life zil. "I decided to have them saved," she said, "would
cryogenically preserved in the make my effort worth-while."
TRANSOPTION RING
BROKEN BY FBI
"Massive" Operation family-planning clinics in Mal-Nets Eight Young ibu, Westwood, and Irvine. Surgeons, Gold "They offered large sums of
cash to unwed mothers who
Exclusive to the Times came in for abortions," Dela-LOS ANGELES-Eight cort said. "Then they tran-young Southland surgeons sopted the fetuses into other were arrested Friday by the women who paid astronomical
FBI and local police in a fees for the service."
sweep that netted illegal tran-Also seized in the coordi-soption equipment, nearly a nated raids were containers of million dollars in cash and cryogenic liquid that led Dela-gold, and information on cort to speculate that some of thousands of transoptions the fetuses were being frozen
performed over the last five for future use.
years throughout California, "When there's an under-Arizona, and Nevada. ground demand for something The eight surgeons, de-as there is for transoption,"
scribed by FBI Special Agent Delacort stated, "there's a tre-Richard Delacort as "money-mendous incentive for doctors hungry kids armed with la-to violate their ethics and pro-sers," operated out of three vide it." Dear Editor:
Your editorial about the Transoption Eight could
not have been more short-sighted and uninformed
["Doctors Should Have Stuck to Abortions," July
18]. Simply because abortion is legal and transop-tion is not places no obligation on your paper to support the persecution of these dedicated medical
pioneers. There was a time when "the majority of
medical opinion," as you put it, could "see there
was no scientific merit" in a doctor washing his
hands between dissecting cadavers and delivering
babies.
Consider for a moment what the Transoption
Eight have done. Without a cent of federal funding,
they have freed thousands of women from un-wanted pregnancies and the onus of abortion and given thousands of other women the gift of beauti-ful, healthy babies. For this they have been ar-rested and imprisoned soley because Congress and the president decided to create a new criminal
class with the stroke of a pen.
The women who paid fortunes to receive those
unwanted babies are not creating "new burdens on
a strained society." They can afford to care for the
children that might otherwise have been born onto
welfare or aborted at taxpayer's expense. And the
women who freely gave up their pregnancies are
not the "hapless dupes, silenced with blood
money," that you describe. Most of them are
women who want neither to be pregnant nor be
killers.
I should know.
I am one of them.
[Name Withheld by Request]
SUPREME COURT
AGREES TO HEAR
TRANSOPTION CASE
Could Be Another Roe v. Wade,
Defendants Say
UPI
WASHINGTON-overturn the jury nullifi-Five Supreme Court jus-cation of [this] genocidal tices today approved a bit of legislation is
writ of certiorari to re-doomed to failure, if not
view the case of United in the Supreme Court,
States vs. Grosscup, in then in the real world
what will be the first high where women vote with
court test of the Rohra-their bodies in support of
bacher-Hayden Act out-transoption."
lawing transoption. Transoption, already
Wanda Grosscup, the legal in most countries in
first of nearly four thou-the Western Hemisphere,
sand women convicted has found popularity in
for violation of the law, the United States despite
has steadfastly main-its risky and illegal na-tained that she is in fact ture. (See story, Section the co-mother of her son C, P. 37-"Five Hundred
and was granted custody Thousand Plus: Officials
by an arrangement with Sinking in Sea of Tran-the so-called "first stage" soption Warrants.") co-mother. Grosscup, in appeal-Basing her defense on ing to the Supreme Court, the highly publicized seeks to overturn a Court
Dalton vs. Chandler deci-of Appeals reversal-on
sion rendered nearly a technical grounds-of a
decade ago, Grosscup federal district court ver-has enlisted the aid of dict in favor of her inno-outspoken transoption cence. The verdict in-advocate Adrianne Dyer. cited a blaze of contro-Dyer's Living Alterna-versy six years ago that tive Institute, based in centered on the ability of
Denver, issued a state-a jury to declare certain
ment that "the U.S. Dis-laws invalid.
trict Attorney's efforts to
TRANSOPTION BAN
UNCONSTITUTIONAL
Supporters on the open market like so
Hail Verdict much meat."
Attorney Terence John-Reuters son, who presented the oral
WASHINGTON-In a 6-argument for defendant
3 decision, the Supreme Wanda Grosscup, said
Court today overturned a "We're thrilled with the out-lower court ruling, in effect come. We always maintained declaring the Rohrabacher-that saving a life was not a
Hayden Act unconstitu-crime, and after eight years
tional. Associate Justice Wil-we are finally vindicated."
son wrote, in the majority Dr. Evelyn Fletcher, the
opinion, that "transoption de-surgeon who first developed
serves at least the same status transoption over a decade
that abortion has," and that ago, was asked to comment
the transoptive co-mothers on the decision just before her
are "protected by the same... keynote speech at the Interna-umbrella of privacy that cov-tional LifeChoice Confer-ers any woman who seeks ence in Edmonton, Alberta. either to terminate or initiate The globally-honored physi-a pregnancy." cian merely shrugged and Chief Justice Connely, in said, "You can't stop prog-her dissenting opinion, stated ress. You can either get on the that "a fetus is just as much a train or jump aside and wave
part of a woman's body as her as it passes. Otherwise, you'll
heart or liver and, similarly, get flattened."
should not be [bought or sold]
"DESIGNER"
CONTRACEPTIVES
GET FDA GO-AHEAD
Could Be work by taking a sperm or ovum
Available In sample and culturing its DNA in
order to create a custom-de-Two Months signed injection that "switches off" the genetic codes for ovula-tion or sperm production. The
Times Wire Service neutralizing compounds
WASHINGTON-The FDA Ovugen and Spermagen switch
announced that it has granted ap-the genetic codes back on.
proval for two different injectable Ironically, both were labeled
contraceptives manufactured by safe and effective by the FDA
Brunner Pharmaceuticals of Pas-six months before the blockers
saic, New Jersey. Ovustat, an were..
ovulation blocker for women and Public demand for the in-Spermastat, a sperm disabler for credibly convenient contracep-men, have been available in Eu-tive has resulted in a flurry of rope, Canada, and portions of one-day "vacations" to Canada South America for three years. followed by another one-day
Both offer permanent contracep-"business trip" the subsequent tive action until neutralized by a week. One week, of course, i
s
counteracting injection, after the time it takes to culture the
which fertility is permanently re-genetic sample and create the
stored. designer contraceptive.
The FDA denied that it bowed What next for Brunner Phar-to public pressure in its decision. maceuticals now that the FDA
"The drugs are simply safe and has issued its approval? Dr. Ian
effective. Period," said FDA Brunner, the company's
spokesperson Janet Allan. "That founder, says, "We're close to we were able to make such a swift the testing stage for Virocidan,
decision should be considered a the antivirus virus. When ap-tribute to our recent reorganiza-proved, we plan to market it tion." separately and in a package
Both Ovustat and Spermastat with Ovustat and Spermastat."
TRANSOPTION CLINIC,
FACING NEW AGE,
GOES WITH FLOW
Declining Practice became legal in the U.S.," she
Prompts Switch said, "we moved into the market
to "Contras" and adapted the failing com-pany to the altered demands of Exclusive to the Herald the time. The new millennium,
SANTA MONICA-Citing though, brought with it some
the decline in elective transop-rapid changes. LifeSwitch is
tions, the president of Life-proving that it can once again
Switch Prenatal Adoptions to-adapt to new realities."
day announced that its entire With the change comes a new
nationwide chain of seventeen name. Says Czernek, "To reflect
transoption clinics will shift our shift in emphasis, Life-emphasis from transoption to Switch Prenatal Adoptions will genetic contraception. "Tran-become ContraTemps. We will
soptions will still be per-also have an initial public offer-formed," said president and ing of stock this spring in order CEO Valerie Czernek, but "we to finance an aggressive expan-have to adapt to the times." sion program." When she and her husband, As unanticipated and un-Ron Czernek, bought the chain wanted pregnancies continue to three years ago, "it consisted of decline, ContraTemps may well
