European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - August 30, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 the stars and stripes wednesday August 30,1989 columns Ellen Goodman Frozen embryo fight does t belong in court when i first heard that Mary sue and Junior Lewis were going to court 1 knew this was going to be More than your average Nasty custody fight. They were wrangling Over the most dramatic leftover of their marriage seven fertilized and Frozen eggs. The couple could t split what they had joined to Gether. He could t get his sperm Back she could t retrieve her ovum. Nor were they willing to divvy up what they had stored at the in Vitro clinic four for her three for him. They could t even share custody one week in her Freezer one week in his. Junior did t want the pc embryos to become full hedged dependents. Mary sue wanted them to go were they were intended into her womb. So i assumed that this Case would become an Chi Cist s Delight and a lawyer s Nightmare. There is simply no precedent for this dispute. There in t even an appropriate analogy. Should Junior become the first Man with the Post fertilization right to say no should Mary sue become the first woman with rights to her sex Hus band s reproductive system but when the Case was heard in Tennessee the weight of testimony focused instead on the question of when life begins. On whether these pre embryos were a group of cells or pc bom not surprisingly Mary sue s lawyer tried to argue that procreation had already taken place that in essence the cells Frozen in liquid nitrogen should have a Chance to be born. Indeed Mary sue called herself the Mother of those Pavo Recourt these words sound More than a Little familiar. Sud Denly in this wholly unique context we were arguing again about Conception fertilization life biology and beliefs. In the endless abortion debate the pro life movement has defined Conception the Way Mary sue does As the moment an egg is fertilized by a sperm. In its View the fertilized egg is an unborn human life even before it makes the treacherous trip into the woman s womb. But this definition raises All sorts of other issues for this Case. If the seven pc embryos Are really pc bom then who is to say that Mary sue is the Best vehicle for their birth if a pre embryo is a human life then it might Well be threatened by the process of implanting Frozen embryos which has Only a 10 percent Success rate. If the Mother has Success with one pc embryo should she not Promise to Bear All seven i won t in any Way diminish the anguish Mary sue has been through or her desire to have a baby. But she is not a Mother and these Are not pc born lawyers like most of us push for clarity. But biology resists. Biology tells us that Conception is not a Carl Rowan soy Cool. Let me do the talking. Or you la never get custody of that Frozen embryo. Moment but a process. Fertilization itself can take whole Day. It takes four Days for that egg to get to the womb. In the course of last year you can calculate there were 336 million eggs fertilized throughout the world and 107 million of them were naturally washed away. As John Robertson told the court a pc embryo is not an to Call the microscopically Small 2-Day-old eggs undifferentiated cells is to describe them not to diminish them. Because of their potential they deserve As Robertson said special respect but not inc respect due a is a Case that never should have happened. Couples do and should decide the future of Frozen embryos in Case of death or divorce. But the Davics did t and so the judge must. Mary sue s history Laid out before the nation in the court Case is Ripe with painful details five ectopic pregnancies six failed if attempts one failed marriage. Her investment in this process is deep and arouses genuine could let her use these pc embryos Bear them alone raise them alone. He could walk away Shehas said so. It s a sign of his belief in the importance of parenting that he has All this the impossibility of this situation the clash of rights and needs i believe the judge should Rule against Mary is More than a Chance that she could have children using another donor another Day. She retains that right. But if she is allowed against Junior s will to be impregnated with these pre embryos he May lose forever his right to decide whether and with whom to have a child. However bizarre this bioethics free for All it is not finally a matter of the rights of pre bom Chil Dren but of two adults. In front of All of us they Are trying to fight their Way out of the quandaries created in a pc Lri dish. Washington pot writer group Safe lotteries a form of taxation of fhe poor if you dont have the guts to tax the people who have big Money then sucker Nickels and dimes away from the masses who Only dream of having Money. That seems to be the theme song of officials in 28 Stales and the District of Columbia who have established official lotteries that pay out new making Mil Lions on occasion to a very few Lucky people while taking billions from those who still think there s a pot of Gold at the end of every Rainbow. The state of Oregon recently announced that its lottery commission voted 5-0 to begin a weekly scheme under which people can bet on National football league games. A bettor can pick four games using the Point spread and get so Back for $1 bet if he gets All four games right. Pick 14 games right and the payoff for a Dollar bet would be $ 8,000. Spokesmen for the nil backed by the professional basketball and base Ball people Are screaming that Oregon and the Stales sure to follow Are going to ruin the integrity of professional sports leaving everywhere the impression that the crooked lords of gambling always have the fix in. That argument does t move me. Professional sports is playing Footsie with gamblers including the pros and those of us who poke a Buck or two Inlo office pools when the nil must Tell in and Vance which players arc injured to the Point that they Are doubtful or definitely won t play in an upcoming game. The nil in effect tells the gambling Industry what the Point spread ought to be. That is also information for the gamblers in Nevada which until the Oregon scheme has been the Only state where you can bet legally on football baseball hockey and basketball. When baseball managers announce Days in Advance who their starting pitch ers will be that is mostly to acco modal gamblers in Nevada and Cigar stores and shadowy rooms across the land. What really bothers me is that lotteries and other state sponsored gambling schemes have become the preferred cop out tool for lawmakers who Don to have the guts to Levy taxes or push Bond issues that arc essential to properly educating giving health care to or otherwise meet ing the needs of their states children aged indigent and others. A lot of states claim that lotteries provide desperately needed Money for Public education. Ore gon says its scheme will provide $4 Mil lion to $9 million a year for the athletic programs of the state s universities and colleges. Even if i believed All the Noble intentions set Forth to get approval for these lotteries i would ask is it Worth it when we Sec that gambling becomes perhaps the most regressive unfair system of taxation on the american landscape it Means ripping off the poor who arc most inclined to squander Money they need for food and shelter to Chase that Fortune at the end of the Rainbow. Can we afford the lotteries consid ering the fact that Gambler s Anonymous says 5 million to 8 million Ameri cans have lost control and become compulsive gamblers in state lotteries and the casinos and card games that proliferate wildly has anyone compare the Cost of caring for the families of compulsive gamblers with the revenues states get from encouraging gambling the National football league and other professional sports organizations probably have no Legal Way to Stop Ore gon or any other state from legalizing betting on any professional sport but organized football basketball baseball or whatever would protect the integrity of their games if they abandoned the business of broadcasting in Advance who the starting quarterback or Pitcher will be or which great running Back or wide receiver injured his knee two Kickoff ,. Why can t we just let the professional gamblers squirm As we go to the stadiums knowing that what Well see is what we get game after game alter game now that May not produce the kind of fever that sent hundreds of thousands of people driving across the Pennsylva Nia line when that state s lottery was about to give out millions or the what the hell daring that caused one of my relatives to plunk Down j5 on the Chance of winning $40 million m the District of Columbia pottery. I m no crusader against Gam bling. I be matched pennies shot craps for dollars and played Pokr for sum that seemed Gargantuan during my government official impecunious Yean. . ,
