22 Capital Journal, Salem, Ore., Thursday, Jan. 19, 1950
PROBLEM LIKE 'MERCY KILLING'
What Right Has Doctor
To Help Create Life?
By CLARKE BEACH
Washington, Jan. 19 VP) What right has a doctor to take a life?
That's one of the physician's oldest legal and moral problems.
What right has a doctor to help create life, That's a fairly new
problem for medical men. The modern techniques of artificial
Insemination creates it.
Churchmen and lawyers lor
centuries have argued about
"mercy killings," such as the one
for which Dr. Herman N. Sander
was recently indicted at Man
chester, N. H. Now they are
drawing the battle lines for the
newer controversy.
Is it morally or legally right
for a woman to have a baby by
use of the life germ of a man who
Is not her husband, even though
the husband consents and a doc
tor engineers the project: Or is
it adultery?
There are now about 4000 per
sons In the United States who
were ."test tube babies." Are
they legitimate? Problems in
volving their property rights
could become enormously com
plex. In criminal prosecutions oi
civil litigation over these Issues,
doctors could become involved
as agents or accessories. Both
medical and legal men have
done a lot of thinking and wor
rying about the possibilities. Ac
tually there has been very lit
tle court action regarding arti
ficial insemination but that
very fact leaves the physician
all the more in the dark as to
bis rights and liabilities.
Doctors who perform an arti
ficial insemination often view it
as an act of mercy or charity.
A couple long frustrated in their
hope for children come to him
with the plea t oenable the wife
to have a child. It is often an
act of desperation, on which all
their future happiness seems to
depend. They won t be satisfied
to adopt a baby. They want a
child that will be at least half
theirs.
If the doctor agrees, he must
act with extreme secrecy to pro
tect all the parties concerned.
He must choose a donor, the
other man, who is youthful,
healthy, intelligent, of good
character and resembling the
husband as much as possible.
Neither the donor nor the cou
ple must ever know the other's
identity.
Usually the donor Is a hos
pital intern who needs extra
money. He is paid $5 or $10 for
a specimen, and he often do
nates to one recipient repeated
ly over a period of months
neither, of course, ever seeing
the other. One specimen was
carried 600 miles by airplane.
After the baby is conceived,
here are some of the complica
tions that might arise:
Suppose the husband or wife
has a change of heart. Could
they charge the physician with
abetting a rape or adultery?
What will be the status of the
child If the couple became dl
- vorced? If potential heirs later
, find out that the husband is not
the father, can they deny the
child his Inheritance on the'
grounds of illegitimacy?
Suppose the donor resorts to
blackmail. Or suppose he claims
that ht unwittingly had been
used in a medical experiment.
Suppose the donor's wife objects
to her husband being the father
of another woman's baby? Docs
the child have any right to
claim the donor as his legal par
ent? Or could the mother sub
sequently sue the donor for the
support of the child?
To protect themselves, most
doctors require that all parties
concerned, husbands and wives
on both sides, sign statements
agreeing to the procedure and
freeing the doctor of all liabili
ty. New York City requires that
uch records be kept. But if the
names are thus recorded, there
Is no guarantee fo perpetual se
crecy. So some doctors outside
of New York never require any
such statements.
Civil War Vet, 107,
May Marry Again
Oregon City, Ore., Jan. 19 (U.PJ
Michael J. Thralls, widowed
twice and a Civil War veteran
says he might get married again.
He is 107.
"Might get married again, all
right," he said while celebrating
his birthday yesterday. "If I
could find a wife who'd fill my
pipe and smoke with me."
Thralls, who moved here re
cently from Nampa, Ida., en
listed In Indiana with Union
forces. He considers Abraham
Lincoln the nation's greatest
president.
Cons Give Skin
For Burned Boy
Columbus, O., Jan. 19 (JP)
From his waist to his ankles, 11-year-old
Jimmy Wallace was
covered today with skin furn
ished him by seven inmates of
Ohio penitentiary.
For two hours yesterday the
Upper Sandusky boy, half of
whose body was severely burned
Dec. 4 in a kerosene stove ex
plosion, lay on the operating ta
ble while physicians grafted on
skin taken earlier in the day
from the abdomens of the don
ors.
Some 448 square inches of
skin two four-by-eight inch
grafts from each of the seven
donors were applied to the
lad's body.
A hospital physician pro
nounced the operation an "as
sured success" and said Jimmy
was resting easily and was
"alert and taking nourishment
well."
fml 1 lH)
It a $$Sit$ff If Mf
Holder of Non-Slop
Record Meets Death
Chipley, Fla., Jan. 19 VP)
Johnny Mann, California flier
who claimed a non-stop distance
record for light planes last week
from Van Nuys, Calif., to Jack
sonville, was killed with another
Californian in a plane crash
near here last night. Both were
from Los Angeles.
The record flight was made in
connection with the All Ameri
can air maneuvers at Miami
which ended Sunday.
The Florida highway patrol
identified the men as John Fran
cis Mann, 45, and Robert E. Mi
lander, about 40.
Civil Service Board
Not fo Change Rules
The Salem civil service com
mission doesn't think it will re-
Logs Wreck Apartment Timbers from log boom which
broke up during Pacific northwest storm were hurled against
this 12-unit apartment at Tacoma, Wash., making it virtually
uninhabitable. No one was injured. (AP Wirephoto)
lent in the matter of permitting
city civil service employes to
engage in other remunerative
activities, including odd jobs on
days off.
The commission has been ap
proached on the subject both by
some policemen and some fire
men, the only city employes un
der civil service, and may dis
cuss it at the next meeting on
February 15, but doesn't expect
to change the policy.
Harvey Tautfest who resigned
from the department while in
his probationary period under
civil service, asked for rein
statement but was advised that
he is not eligible for reappoint
ment. He is now past the age
limit. Tautfest resigned last Oc
tober when he was ordered in
to uniform after having serv
ed as juvenile officer.
Storage Shed Bids
At Detroit Rejected
Colonel Donald S. Burns, Port
land district engineer, has reject
ed all three bids for construction
of a temporary drill core stor
age shed and a public observa
tion building at Detroit dam on
the North Santiam river.
The bids of Neuman company
Salem, $14,419, Consolidated
Builders, Inc., Mill City, $15,500,
and Century Construction com
pany, Inc., Seattle, $15,590, were
more than 10 percent above the
estimate of the Portland district,
corps of engineers, $11,380.
Colonel Burns said the work
would be readvertised at a later
date.
Parathion, a new insecticide
is so dangerous to man that it is
not recomended for general use,
Douglas Fir
Production Up
Portland, Jan. 19 VP) Doug
las fir sawmills in Washington
and Oregon Increased produc
tion during 1949. It was the
fourth straight year of rising
output.
The West Coast Lumbermen's
association reported yesterday
that output was 9,950,000 board
feet. This is about 190,000,000
above the 1948 level.
Shipments of Douglas fir,
west coast hemlock, western red
cedar and Sitka spruce totaled
9,868,000,000 board feet . last
year. This was also above the
previous year.
The association reported De
cember's average weekly output
of Douglas fir was 184,427,000
board feet. Orders averaged
174,994,000 and shipments 187,-113,000.
12-Unit Apartment
In Zone Held Up
Plans for the construction of
a 12-unit apartment house at
Summer and Marion streets
have been held in abeyance
pending action of the long range
planning commission on the pro
posed capitol group, Leib L.
Riggs of Salem, who had planned
to build the apartment, announces.
Concurrent with Riggs' an
nouncement was an announce
ment from Lyle P. Bartholomew,
House Needs
New House
Phone Number
Seattle, Jan. 19 VP) At the
house of William C. House they
are looking for a storm cellar
or a new telephone number.
The trouble all goes back to a
radio broadcast about the new
weather bureau telephone serv
ice. It seems that in a few
major cities you can get a re
corded weather report by dial
ing WE1212. It works just like
the special number you dial in
a city to get the time of day.
The radio broadcast explained
how dialing WE (for weather)
1212 would bring, the weather
information. But In Seattle WE
(for west) 1212 Is the William
C. House residence.
The Houses have had no peace
for days or night. They've
muffled the phone bell, put the
phone under davenport cush
ions, pulled bedcovers over their
ears. No luck and not much
sleep.
House, a chief switchman for
the telephone company, figures
they'll have to change their
number after having had It for
13 years. Nice easy number to
remember, too, even if you just
heard it once on the radio.
Salem architect, that he will
not charge Riggs any architec
tural fees in the event the apart
ment building is not built.
Bartholomew had already
drawn a set of plans for the
proposed structure. The build
ing was to have been of two
story design with garages for
tenants in the rear.
Truman Tax
Word Held Up
Washington, Jan. 19 VP)
President Truman said today
that technical matters are hold
ing up submission of his tax
program to congress.
He told a news conference
there is no controversy within
the administration over the pro
posals but that it is taking a
long time to whip them into a
message for congress.
He said he would send tha
message to the capitol as soon
as he can get it ready.
In his state-of-the-union mes
sage January 5, Mr. Truman ad
vised congress that he would ask
a "moderate" increase In taxes
and revision of some present
levies in a later special message.
Because of the delay in de
livery of the special message
there has been speculation that
the president's advisors were at
odds over what should go into
it.
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