Page 2
Daily Nebraskan
Wednesday, April 1, 1937
By The Associated Press
Fatter wins custody of Baby M, MotSaeF dleMed light
HACKENSACK, N J. - Ajudge awar
ded custody of Baby M to her father
Tuesday and stripped surrogate mother
Mary Beth Whitehead of all parental
rights to the child she bore under a
$10,000 contract.
In the nation's first judicial ruling
on surrogate parenting, Bergen County
Superior Court Judge Harvey R. Sorkow
upheld the validity of the contract on
the grounds that just as men have a
constitutional right to sell their sperm,
women can decide what to do with
their wombs.
Immediately after William Stern won
custody in the landmark case, his wife,
Elizabeth, adopted the year-old baby,
whom they call Melissa. The child has
been in their care while the case was
argued.
Sorkow ordered Stern to pay Mrs.
Whitehead the $10,000 agreed to in the
contract. That money had been held in
escrow since the contract was signed.
Mrs. Whitehead, who had vowed to
appeal, awaited the ruling at her home
after visiting with the baby earlier in
the day and then stopping at a church
to light a devotional candle.
The Stems held hands in the crowded,
locked courtroom throughout the 2 12
hours it took the judge to read his
ruling. They clutched each other when
the custody decision was announced.
Sorkow said the Sterns had shown a
stable, secure, loving relationship, the
ability to provide financially and psy
chologically for the future needs of the
baby and "an ability to make rational
decisions in the most trying of circum
stances." "The Sterns live a private, unremar
kable life," the judge said. "Mrs. White
head seems not to have found the time
for family therapy sessions while mak
ing herself and her children available
to the media."
Sorkow also said the Sterns would
better be able to explain to the child
her unusual beginnings in the years to
come.
The judge said the Whiteheads' life
has been marked by domestic and mar
ital instability and that Mrs. White
head has been shown to "impose her
self' on her two other children.
"Too much love can smother a child,"
Sorkow said.
The judge, who made no provision for
Mrs. Whitehead ever to see her daugh
ter again, condemned her as impulsive
and exploitive and said she either
selectively omitted information or lied
outright duringtestimony about aspects
of her life.
"This inability to tell the truth
establishes a tarnished . . . environ
ment" for raising the child, the judge
said.
Mrs. Whitehead, who was artificially
inseminated with Sterns' sperm, said
she realized during the baby's birth
March 27, 1986, that she could not give
up her daughter.
She refused her $10,006 fee and fled
to Florida with the infant when the
Sterns obtained a court order giving
them temporary custody. For 87 days
she moved from relative to relative,
until authorities tracked her down and
returned the chubby, blue-eyed girl to
the Sterns.
Since the first birth under a surro
gate contract in 1976, about 500 babies
have been born under similar circum
stances, but no state has regulated the
practice.
In Brief
Offer to free hostages renewed
BEIRUT, Lebanon Moslem kidnappers today renewed an offer to
swap four hostages for 400 Arabs held by Israel, and claimed that the
health of one captive American was "deteriorating day by day."
The statement said the health of American hostage Alann Steen, 47,"of
Boston, was "deteriorating day by day despite continuous medication."'
Reinstated chief returns to Omaha
OMAHA Police Chief Robert Wadman is happy to be back home after
being reinstated in a court decision last week.
Wadman returned to Omaha Monday from Washington, D.C., where he
worked before Douglas County District Judge Stephen Davis ruled Wad
man should be given his old job back.
Wadman was fired for insubordination last October by Public Safety
Director Keith Lant and then-Mayor Michael Boyle.
Tuesday was Wadman's first day back at work.
Movie awards beat b-ball in ratings
NEW YORK Indiana may have eked out a win over Syracuse for the
NCAA basketball championship, but the Academy Awards show was the
big winner in the A.C. Nielsen ratings.
According to ratings from 1 3 major markets, the Oscars got a 33.8 rating
and a 53 share Monday night.
The movie awards extravaganza on ABC was only head-to-head against
the game on CBS after 9 p.m. EST. The game had started at 8 p.m.
U.S. adviser dies in El Salvador raid
EL PARAISO, El Salvador Guerrillas raided a major
army base before dawn Tuesday, killing at least 43 soldiers
and a U.S., military adviser, the first to die during battle in
the 7-year-old civil war.
El Salvador's military commander said the American,
identified as Staff Sgt. Gregory A. Fronius, 27, of Greens
burg, Pa., was killed by mortar fire near a command post.
The military said 35 soldiers were wounded by leftist
rebels who assaulted the base behind a barrage of cannon,
mortar and grenade fire. Base commander Col. Gilberto
Rubio, who was slightly wounded, said the number of
attackers had not been determined.
Officials said seven guerrillas died in the attack on the
4th Infantry Brigade garrison at El Paraiso in Chalete
nango province, a rebel stronghold, and some penetrated
the camp. El Paraiso is nearly 40 miles north of San
Salvador, capital of this Central American country.
"Because of the seriousness of the injuries, the number
of dead (soldiers) on the scene estimated government
casualties at abut 65 dead and more than 100 wounded.
According to U.S. policy, American advisers do not
participate in offensive military action or enter areas
where combat is occurring or likely, but may visit "care
fully selected and secure sites" such as garrisons. They
are armed and may respond if fired upon.
The United States has a self-imposed ceiling of 55 on
the number of advisers serving in El Salvador at one time,
but fewer sometimes are on duty.
Tuesday's rebel attack was the largest since a June
1986 guerrilla assault on the army base at San Miguel, 86
miles east of San Salvador. The military said 50 soldiers
were killed or wounded there, but the rebels claimed a
total of 250.
U.S. Embassy spokesman Pen Agnew said Fronius was
training SaJvadoran troops at the El Paraiso garrison.
At the Pentagon in Washington, the Army said he had a
wife and child and was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 7th
Special Forces Group, based in Panama.
Pentagon spokesman Robert Sims said the sergeant
was part of the two-man team assigned to the area and his
partner was not at the garrison when the rebels attacked.
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House overrides veto
ighway bill includes 65 mpli limit
WASHINGTON The Democratic-controlled
House voted 350-73 Tuesday to override Presi
dent Reagan's veto of an $88 billion highway and
mass transit bill, sending the measure to the
Senate for the final round of a bruising political
struggle.
The margin was 68 votes more than the two
thirds needed to override the president's action
on the bill, which couples more than 100 road
projects made to order for individual lawmakers
with a provision permitting the states to raise
the speed limit to 65 miles per hour on most
stretches of interstate highway.
The only suspense in the House was the mar
gin of Reagan's defeat, where 248 Democrats and
102 Republicans including GOP Leader Bob
Michel of Illinois and Republican Whip Trent
Lott of Mississippi cast their votes to override
the veto. Democratic Rep. Norman Sisisky of
Virginia and 72 Republicans voted to sustain
Reagan.
Michel noted the presence of funds in the bill
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to complete a highway widening project in his
district, and said he was making a "very difficult,
agonizing decision for the first time in the Rea
gan presidency" to oppose him on a major bill.
Freshman GOP Rep. Arthur Ravenel Jr. of
South Carolina reflected the political appeal of
the bill when he said, "You can bet your spring
petunias this Congress will override the veto.
President Reagan, he ain't going to be running in
1988, but I am."
House Speaker Jim Wright, D-Texas, said the
outcome was a "very gratifying victory in the
House. Members stood up for their won convic
tion, standing up to blandishments and pres
sure" from the White House.
Democrats argued that the measure was
under budget, and said a successful veto would
cost 800,000 jobs in the coming construction
season. A provision permitting states to raise the
speed limit to 65 mph on rural portions of the
interstates was also politically attractive to
Western lawmakers.
Medicare fund improves
still faces bankruptcy
WASHINGTON The Social Security fund that pays for
Medicare hospital benefits improved over the past year
but still faces bankruptcy shortly after the turn of the
century, the fund's trustes said Tuesday.
While last year's report to Congress predicted the fund
would be exhausted in 1996, the one this year says it can
get by through 2002.
But given that the question is not whether but wherrthe
fund will expire, the trustees said, "Early corrective
action is essential in order to avoid the need for later,
potentially precipitous changes." The same language was
used in the 1986 report
The 1S87 report calculates that making the Hospital
Insurance Trust fund solvent over the next 25 years would
require a 13 percent reduction in Medicare expenditures
or a 15 percent increase in contributions.
The Medicare hospital program is financed by Social
Security payroll taxes.
. On the rosier side, the trustees reported that two other
Social Security insurance funds the old age and survi
vors fund and the disability fund continue to be in good
shape for the next 75 years.
And they noted that "although the supplementary
medical insurance program is financially sound," the so
called Part B side of the medicare program that pays
doctor tills kss been doubling in size every five or six
yesrs end shcs no sign of slowing down.