Johnson gazed at the members of the jury as if to drive his point home. Actually, he scanned their faces for some sense of their reaction. He read sympathy on most, but the two young women seemed a bit put off by the idea of such colossal ef-forts. One of the older men, too, appeared embarrassed by the clinical details.
'Did Dr. Fletcher,' he asked, 'say why she suggested surgi-cal embryo transfer? Transoption, as she calls it.'
'She said she suspected that a more fully developed embryo might have a better chance of thriving. We were at our wits' end. We'd tried everything else under the sun.' Tears welled in her eyes. She pressed at them with a tissue. 'We just wanted a baby.'
Terry held up his hand and nodded in sympathy. He ran the hand through his curly mop of hair and said, 'Did Dr. Fletcher ever speak to you about abortion?'
'Yes.'
'What did she say?'
Karen put her hand in her lap and crumpled the tissue in its grasp. 'She said that transoption was something that she hoped would make abortion obsolete.'
'I object,' Czernek said loudly. 'This line of questioning is not germane-'
'On the contrary, Your Honor.' Johnson stepped over to face the judge. 'Counsel for the plaintiff has raised the question of the defendant's awareness of abortion. I am merely probing the question further.' Lyang mulled the problem for a moment. 'Overruled,' she said. Johnson strolled around the witness stand. 'Mrs. Chandler,' he said, 'were you aware of the identity of the embryo donor?'
'No. Dr. Fletcher insisted that we have no contact with the donor.'
'Did you know that the donor was unaware of the use to which her aborted-I'm sorry.' He nodded at Dr. Fletcher. 'I mean her transopted fetus. That she was unaware of the use to which it would be put?'
'No. She never really discussed the source with us. Just that embryos were available.'
'Where did you think the embryo must have come from?'
'An abortion,' Karen replied. 'I mean, that was pretty obvi-ous, don't you think?' Several spectators laughed in a nervous sort of way and al-most immediately shut up.
'Was it your intent to become pregnant simply to enjoy be-ing pregnant?' Karen shook her head, an inadvertent smile crossing her face. 'Pregnancy isn't something you do for fun. David and I wanted to bring a child into the world. To raise it with love.'
'Did it make any difference to you that the donor was totally unaware that her child would be transopted?'
'No.'
The muttering increased. People nodded to themselves and one another. Karen continued, staring squarely at the jurors. 'I had no uncertainties. I knew that I wasn't taking a child from some-one who would miss it. It's not as if the donor had an abortion just to provide me with a fetus. I knew that I was saving a child from absolutely certain death.' Looking out at the spectators, she saw and heard dozens of people arguing with one another. Some expressed astonish-ment at her blatant statement; others spread their hands in reluctant agreement with her logic. She glanced down at Valerie.
The plaintiff lowered her head in an attempt to hide her tears. Unsuccessful, she grasped Ron's shoulders and clung to him.
'Please, Val,' he said. 'I've got to stand up to object.' He stood, letting her arms slide down him.
'Objection!' he shouted. 'The defendant's personal opinions are of no conse-quence here.'
'Sustained,' Lyang said. She looked down at the court re-porter. 'Strike the last question and answer from the record. And counsels will please approach the bench.'
Czernek and Johnson stepped over to the base of Judge Lyang's dark wooden tower. She looked down at both of them and whispered.
'What is going on here? This is a custody lawsuit we're hear-ing, and neither of you has addressed the issue of the best interests of the child.' She pointed a dismissive hand at Czernek. 'Well, maybe you have, perfunctorily. Neither of you, however, has bothered to raise questions of financial resources, parental fitness, personal habits, or any issues of fact that I would normally hear in this court.'
'Your Honor-' Johnson glanced hesitantly at Czernek. 'This case is not one of divorced parents deciding on custody. That is why we all agreed to forego the discovery phase. This is a case of two sets of parents, both well-
