William W Handel

An infertile Tustin couple involved in an unprecedented custody battle with a surrogate mother sued her and the lawyer who arranged the surrogacy contract Tuesday. Mark and Crispina Calvert filed a lawsuit in Orange County Superior Court against Anna M. Johnson, the surrogate mother, lawyer William W. Handel and his organization, the Center for Surrogate Parenting Inc., alleging fraud, breach of contract and infliction of emotional distress.

An infertile Tustin couple involved in an unprecedented custody battle with a surrogate mother sued her and the lawyer who arranged the surrogacy contract Tuesday. Mark and Crispina Calvert filed a lawsuit in Orange County Superior Court against Anna M. Johnson, the surrogate mother, lawyer William W. Handel and his organization, the Center for Surrogate Parenting Inc., alleging fraud, breach of contract and infliction of emotional distress.

Allow us to make a few corrections to "And Baby Makes Four" (by Martin Kasindorf, Jan. 20). First, I never stated nor implied that the Calverts did not go forward with our program because of finances. That was their decision, and no reason was given. Furthermore, the Calverts paid the center $2,000 for legal advice, counsel and the use of the contract, not $3,500 as you stated. Second, Anna Johnson never called or visited or applied to the center to be a surrogate. Her claim that she had been accepted by our center is preposterous.

Allow us to make a few corrections to "And Baby Makes Four" (by Martin Kasindorf, Jan. 20). First, I never stated nor implied that the Calverts did not go forward with our program because of finances. That was their decision, and no reason was given. Furthermore, the Calverts paid the center $2,000 for legal advice, counsel and the use of the contract, not $3,500 as you stated. Second, Anna Johnson never called or visited or applied to the center to be a surrogate. Her claim that she had been accepted by our center is preposterous.

Legislators are under increasing pressure to develop laws regulating the growing industry of infertility treatment, infertility experts say. Last year, bills were introduced in Congress to accredit and monitor infertility treatment centers and regulate surrogacy arrangements. Other proposed legislation sought to guarantee insurance coverage of infertility treatment for federal and military employees and mandated more research on infertility.

Casting a short, 29-page dissent into a rising tide of argument, the Los Angeles-based National Assn. of Surrogate Mothers has joined the complicated moral, biotechnological and legal fray surrounding the celebrated Baby M case, the ground-breaking test of surrogate parenting tried earlier this year in a New Jersey court and now on appeal to that state's Supreme Court.

In California's first trial over surrogate parenthood, a young mother began testifying in private here Tuesday in an effort to reclaim the child she bore but gave up two days after his birth in 1986. Nancy Barrass, 31, a Novato preschool teacher, said in documents filed in the Sonoma County courthouse that she was coerced into relinquishing her parental rights to her son and giving him to Dr. Tim and Charlotte Myers.

In an unprecedented case that raises new questions about the rights of surrogate mothers, an Orange County woman who agreed to carry another couple's child filed suit on Monday claiming she should keep the baby even though she has no genetic link to it.

In a case that attracted national attention, a judge ruled Monday that surrogate mother Anna L. Johnson has no rights at all to the baby she bore for an infertile couple and granted exclusive custody to the infant's genetic parents. The decision by Orange County Superior Court Judge Richard N. Parslow Jr.

To infertile couples, the Johnson v. Calvert decision promises brave new babies created in petri dishes, incubated in hired wombs and handed over to their genetic parents--all under the protection of the law. To surrogation foes, the decision heralds "a modern version of reproductive slavery" in which poor women will become "breeders" for rich couples. But to surrogate mother Anna L.

In a case that attracted national attention, a judge ruled Monday that surrogate mother Anna L. Johnson has no rights at all to the baby she bore for an infertile couple and granted exclusive custody to the infant's genetic parents. The decision by Orange County Superior Court Judge Richard N. Parslow Jr.

In an unprecedented case that raises new questions about the rights of surrogate mothers, an Orange County woman who agreed to carry another couple's child filed suit on Monday, claiming that she should keep the baby even though she has no genetic link to it.