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Reproductive Technologies
and Genetics
In October, 1991, Arlette Schweitzer, 42, gave birth to her
daughter’s twins. She bore her own grandchildren as a surrogate (substi
tute mother) for her daughter, Christa Uchytil, who was born without a
uterus. Doctors took eggs from Christa’s ovaries, fertilized them in the lab
oratory with her husband’s, Kevin’s, sperm, and implanted them in Sch
weitzer’s womb. The twins’ birth certificates list Christa and Kevin as the
parents. The grandparents, Dan and Arlette Schweitzer, are delighted at
the outcome.
In September, 1990, Anna Johnson gave birth to a boy for Mark and
Crispina Calvert. Doctors took the Calverts’ sperm and egg, united them in
the laboratory, and implanted the fertilized egg in Johnson’s womb. A hys
terectomy prevented Crispina Calvert from carrying a baby, so the Calverts
paid Anna Johnson S I0,000 to bear a child for them. In this case, however,
the outcome was not happy. During the pregnancy, relations between the
Calverts and Johnson broke down, and both Mrs. Calvert and Johnson
sought court declarations of motherhood. In May, 1993, the California
Supreme Court ruled six to one that Johnson has no maternal rights to the
child. This court was the first in the nation to decide who is the natural
mother of a child: Is it the woman who provides the womb or the one who
provides the ovum (egg)?
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