First test-tube baby born;
girl in excellent condition
Battalion
Thursday, July 27, 1978
College Station, Texas
News Dept. 845-2611
Business Dept. 845-2611
Inside Thursday:
• Review of Frankenstein”
p. 3.
• Cubans celebrate anniversary
of Castro revolution - p. 4.
• Sports festival opens today
p. 7.
Man's best friend goes cruisin'
|Steve Mossbarger, 24, a junior history major at Texas A&M University
hops atop his motorcycle and so does his dog, Madchen. The white
German Shepherd’s name means “little girl” in German. She and her
tggie master anticipate a ride. But who’s gonna drive?
Battalion photo by Scott Pendleton
rmed police ride
ith garbage men
United Press International
SAN ANTONIO — Sixty policemen
pe shotgun on city garbage trucks Wed-
to protect crews from groups of
try strikers who were fired for par-
fpating in a wildcat walkout of the city’s
ge collectors.
The strike has been accented with
nerous acts of violence and several ar-
fts since it began four days ago.
]ity Manager Tom Huebner, backed by
iht of the II city council members in-
lcling Mayor Lila Cockrell, assigned the
Slicemen to accompany the garbage
pws, many of them manned by the 100
workers hired to replace the fired
liters.
iHuebnerhas fired about 150 strikers out
[the city’s total 313 garbage workers,
37 other workers who struck in two
her departments in sympathy.
iMeanwhile, veteran police inspector
Edward Foresman said the city was “sit
ting on a powder keg” and that he feared
some incident could spark a major con
frontation between the strikers and those
who refused to support the strike.
The most recent act of violence was re
ported about dawn Wednesday by Benny
Brooks, a 13-year veteran of the Public
Works Department, who said he was at
tacked by six men in an automobile as he
drove to work on the city’s north side
about 6:15 a. m. Wednesday.
Brooks said the car circled his vehicle on
the freeway, sometimes going in the
wrong direction, while he was chased at
high speed for several miles and the men
pelted his pickup truck with bottles and
stones and plastered his black vehicle with
white paint.
On Tuesday, police arrested one non
striker who allegedly brandished a pistol
when approached by a group of strikers.
No fountain swimming allowed
Chris Tuleen of Bryan and Kevin Rahnert of San Antonio, both II come
up for air after a swim in Rudder Fountain to be greeted by a campus
police officer. The fountain is off-limits for swimmers.
Battalion photo by Ray Daniels
OLDHAM, England — The world’s first “test-tube
baby,” delivered by Caesarean section a week early
because of a threat of blood poisoning, is in excellent
condition, her doctors said Wednesday.
Gynecologist Patrick Steptoe assured a news confer
ence that the 5-pound, 12-ounce daughter of Mrs. Les
ley Brown, 30, was in excellent condition despite the
mild emergency that led to the decision to operate. She
was born at 11:47 p.m. Tuesday night at Oldham Gen
eral Hospital.
"It came out crying its head off and breathing very
well, he said. “It was a beautiful, normal baby.
“Baby Brown still has not been named by her par
ents, although observers guessed she would be called
Patricia, after the gynecologist.
Steptoe and Dr. Robert Edwards, who spent 10
years developing the technique that led to the suc
cessful birth, said they would reveal their methods only
in a medical publication. But they insisted it was not a
one-time success or an accident.
Mrs. Brown, who will be 31 Monday, was reported
in excellent health after the delivery.
T realize that this is a scientific miracle, she had
said two weeks ago in a copyright interview with the
Daily Mail newspaper.
"But in a way science has made us turn to God. We
are not religious people. But when we discovered that
all was working well and I was pregnant we just had to
pray to God to give our thanks,” she said.
Officials said her husband, John, 38, a railroad truck
driver, nervously paced outside the delivery room dur
ing the birth, smoking cigarette after cigarette like
many other prospective fathers.
The experiment has been both hailed as an impor
tant learning tool in coping with genetic abnormalities
and condemned as another ominous step by man to
control and manipulate human life.
But Steptoe insisted all along he only wanted to help
Mrs. Brown have a child. She had been trying to con
ceive for nine years, but blocked Fallopian tubes pre
vented her from conceiving normally.
The one-paragraph hospital statement announcing
the birth said: “Mrs. Brown has been safely delivered
by Caesarean section of a female child. The child’s con
dition at birth was excellent. All examinations showed
it to be quite normal. The weight at birth 2,600 grams
or 5 pounds, 12 ounces. The mother’s condition after
delivery was excellent.
The success of the experiment crowned 12 years of
effort and dozens of futile attempts.
The breakthrough gave new hope to women desper
ate to have children but frustrated by nature that did
not give them equipment in perfect working order.
The advance in human reproductive techniques
shown in Steptoe’s work was generally hailed in Brit
ain. The medical profession welcomed them as a major
development, but sounded cautious notes.
Sir John Stallworthy, president of the British Medi
cal Association Board of Science and professor emeritus
of gynecology at Oxford University, said it was likely to
be many years before the technique is widely available.
But before the birth, some voices were raised to
point to possible moral and other dangers.
Leo Abse, a Labor party member of Parliament and
crusader for minority rights, wished the yet unborn
infant well, but said its birth could be the first step
toward the deliberate production of a “master race” to
dominate the rest, unless proper precautions were
taken.
Anglican and Roman Catholic spokesmen differed on
the issue. <
Roman Catholic Bishop Gerard McClean told church
members in Middlesbrough, northern England, Step-
toe’s work was “unlawful” in the eyes of the church.
“It is not the conception of a child as nature intended
and I am opposed to it.
The Anglican church s spokesman on the issue. Prof.
Robert Berry, said he saw "nothing theologically wrong
with this method.
Doctors knew the child’s sex before the birth, but
the Browns did not want to spoil the surprise and asked
them to keep a secret.
“I have begged them not to tell me, Mrs. Brown
had said. “After waiting for years for this wonderful
thing to happen, I do not want to be cheated of the final
thrill. ”
The medical experts responsible for the break
through in reproductive biology — the infant is the first
conceived outside its mother’s womb — said they be
lieved they had solved a problem that could mean
families for thousands of childless women.
Postal union says second strike
could begin with walkout
United Press International
Eight years ago the nation’s first postal
strike began with a New York City walk
out. Some union leaders say they believe
the nation’s second mail strike will start
the same way next week.
Since the proposed national postal con
tract was agreed upon in Washington last
week, there have been wildcat strikes at
bulk mail centers in California and New
Jersey.
The U.S. Postal Service seems to have
weakened those walkouts by firing almost
100 strikers and promised more dismissals
as soon as other wildcat strikers can be
identified from pictures and videotapes.
In Jersey City, N.J., where 40 workers
were fired, a spokesman for the New York
Bulk and Foreign Mail Center said about
60 percent of its workers showed up Tues
day — up 30 per cent from Monday.
Attendance at the San Francisco Bulk
Mail Center in suburban Richmond,
where 42 workers were fired, was re
ported at about 80 percent Tuesday.
But the most serious threat to mail serv
ice so far will come Monday when some
23,000 New York City postal workers will
vote to decide whether to strike. A union
spokesman said if the vote is yes, the
walkout probably will start at dawn Tues
day.
Moe Biller, leader of the New York City
local, predicted a New York City strike
would mean a national mail strike.
Leaders of a number of postal union lo
cals around the country, who said their
members were against the proposed con
tract, said they would be watching the
New York strike vote.
In Washington, Emmet Andrews, pres
ident of the American Postal Workers
Union, said Tuesday he did not think a
New York City strike would mean a na
tional walkout.
“I don’t think everybody’s going to fol
low the situation in New York,” he said.
“In fact, it is questionable in some people’s
mind whether members in New York will
vote to hold a strike.
Andrews, head of the largest of four
major postal unions, sent mailgrams to
major postal worker locals urging them to
abide by the results of mail balloting on
the proposed contract. Those residts are
expected to be completed in about two
weeks.
On March 18, 1970, postal workers in
New York City walked off their jobs and
were soon followed by the rest of the na
tion in the first strike in the federal postal
system’s history. The walkout lasted eight
days.
During the strike. President Nixon or
dered National Guardsmen to help restore
mail service in New York City — the first
time in U.S. history that soldiers were
called in to replace federal workers.
The firemen are in town
Cars with multiple sets of lights and shiny sirens are
parked all over campus, and it is obvious that the
Firemen’s Training School is in session. This siren
sits atop the Canyon, Texas fire chief s car parked
in lot 40 on campus.
Battalion photo by Pat O’Malley
New York Times to appeal decision
Court rules against reporter withholding notes
United Press International
TRENTON, N.J. — The New York
Times intends to appeal a New Jersey Su
preme Court decision upholding a lower
court order sending a reporter to prison
for refusing to hand over his notes in the
case of a doctor charged with murder.
The state’s high court ruled, 5-1, Tues
day against reporter Myron Farber and
the Times. Justice Morris Pashman dis
sented from the majority.
Farber was allowed to remain free pend
ing an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court
The state Supreme Court gave Farber anc
the Times until noon Friday to file the ap
peal.
Farber’s notes are wanted by the de
fense in the trial of 51-year-old Dr. Marie
Jascalevich of Englewood Cliffs, charged
with killing five patients at Riverdell Hos
pital in Oradell, N.J., between 1965 and
1966 with lethal injections of curare, a
muscle relaxant.
Farber’s investigative stories on the
mysterious deaths of 13 patients at the
hospital led to Jascalevich’s indictment.
New York Times Managing Editor
Seymour Topping said the paper would
appeal the ruling by Friday.
“We are now making efforts to reach
one of the (U.S. SupreniP.Court) justices,’’
he said.
“We are disappointed by the decision.
We feeb the sentences (against Farber)
should be stayed until we have an oppor
tunity to argue the merits of the case in
New Jersey and U.S. Supreme Court,” he
added.
Soon after Tuesday’s ruling, chief de
fense attorney Raymond Brown asked the
trial judge, William Arnold, to suspend
the trial until the U.S. Supreme Court de
cides whether to act on the case,
dered Brown to begin his cross-
examination of Dr. Michael Baden, the
New York City medical examiner.
Farber had spent seven hours in jail
Monday before he was allowed out by
Pashman, pending Tuesday’s ruling.
Earlier Monday, Bergen County Court
Judge Theodore Trautwein ordered
Farber held in jail until he turned over his
notes. He also was sentenced to six
months in jail to be served after he com
plied with the court order.
Six Flags closes cable car ride
United Press International
ARLINGTON — Six Flags Over Texas
at Arlington and Astroworld at Houston
have closed cable lift rides until officials
investigate the deaths of three persons and
injuring of a fourth on a similar gondola
ride at the Six Flags amusement park in
St. Louis.
Bruce Neal, public relations manager at
the Arlington park, said Wednesday there
was nothing to indicate the rides were un
safe, but they were closed pending a com
plete investigation of the accident in St.
Louis.
“We have absolutely no reason what
ever to suspect there could be a problem
of any sort with our version of the ride,”
Neal said. “However, we have closed the
Astrolift until we know exactly what hap
pened to the similar ride in Missouri.
“Because of our very rigid safety
standards, we feel it is only prudent to
suspend operation of the ride until we
know what happened up there.”
Neal said the Six Flags Over Texas gon
dola ride had been inspected as recently as
Wednesday morning as a matter of
routine.
“During the winter months, that ride is
subject to metal testing to make sure that
all components are totally reliable,” he
said. “Extensive safety examinations con
tinue on a daily basis through the year.”
Neal said the Six Flags Over Texas ride
had been in operation since 1961 and had
never had a problem.
“It has carried some 2.4 million people
without incident,” he said.