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Dark Side Of Surrogacy; Sitcom Joke Fury

Aired March 05, 2013 - 14:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: For couples who dream of becoming parents, but are not able to have their own children, one option is a gestational surrogate. It's when a woman is paid to carry the baby that is not genetically theirs through the pregnancy. Of course, it is the gift of parenthood. But, as Elizabeth Cohen explains, it is not always a happy ending.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Crystal Kelley was thrilled when a couple hired her to be a surrogate and carry their baby. The husband and wife were ecstatic too finally they would have the child they had been longing for.

CRYSTAL KELLEY, SURROGATE MOTHER: She said pray for a little girl. I want a little girl.

COHEN (on camera): And she got a little girl.

KELLEY: She got a little girl.

COHEN: Was it the girl she wanted?

KELLEY: No.

COHEN (voice-over): Ultrasounds halfway through Kelley's pregnancy showed the baby girl growing inside her had severe heart defects, a brain abnormality and other medical problems.

KELLEY: They said she had a less than 25 percent chance of being able to have a normal life.

COHEN: Inside Hartford Hospital in Connecticut, the parents, heartbroken, asked Kelley to have an abortion.

KELLEY: I refused. I couldn't do it. I was the one who was feeling her kick and squirm. I knew she had a fighting spirit and I wanted to fight for her.

COHEN: But parents pleaded with Kelley, genetically this was their baby, she was just carrying her.

KELLEY: They said that they didn't want to bring a baby into the world only for that child to suffer. They said I should try to be God-like and have mercy on the child and let her go.

COHEN (on camera): And what did you say?

KELLEY: I told them that it wasn't their decision to play God.

COHEN (voice-over): Strong convictions, but would she betray them for the right price? Kelley was a single mom, money was tight. Through the surrogacy agency, the parents said they would pay her $10,000 to have an abortion.

(on camera): And when you saw that $10,000 figure, did you think, maybe I'll do it?

KELLEY: In a weak moment, I asked her to tell them that for $15,000 I would consider going forward with the termination.

COHEN (voice-over): The parents refused her request and Kelley says she quickly regretted asking for the extra money anyways. Deep down, she knew she could never abort under any circumstance. Once again, they were at a standoff.

CNN reached out to the parents. They didn't respond to repeated calls or e-mails and we're not naming them. Legally they couldn't force Kelley to have an abortion, so they proposed if you have this baby, we'll give her up and she'll become a ward of the state.

KELLEY: I'm not going to let her become one of those forgotten, disabled kids that gets lost in the system.

COHEN: Kelley made a bold decision. Informing the parents at the last second she left the state, pregnant with their baby.

KELLEY: Packed up my van, with everything I could carry, threw my kids in the car, and we drove for two days to Michigan.

COHEN: Under Michigan law, Kelley would be the baby's mother.

(on camera): You were making a decision for a baby that was not genetically yours.

KELLEY: I can't tell you how many people told me that I was bad, that I was wrong, that I should go have an abortion, that I would be damned to hell.

COHEN (voice-over): She spent the final months of her pregnancy in Michigan and gave birth last June. Here is the baby today. She's 8 months old. To protect her privacy, we're not naming her, or the family Kelley found to adopt her.

Along with her cleft lip and palate and misshapen ear, she has severe brain and heart problems. She'll need several risky surgeries to survive, but in many other ways, she's developed like other babies. She smiles, babbles and grabs for toys.

(on camera): Some people would say why bring a child into this world who you know is going to have such huge medical problems? KELLEY: I say that it is not fair to not give them a chance to overcome them.

COHEN: What if she doesn't walk, though, what if she doesn't talk?

KELLEY: She's still a happy little girl who is going to bring joy into the lives of everyone who knows her.

COHEN: When you see her now, how does that feel?

KELLEY: It gives me a lot of joy. I know that every single thing I did was worth it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: What a story. We're going to talk to Elizabeth Cohen here on this. You just talked to the adoptive mother this morning. More twists and turns. We're going to open this up to our panel as well. Did the surrogate do the right thing? That is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Before the break, we showed you the story of the surrogate who was offered $10,000 to get an abortion after the biological parents discovered birth defects with their unborn baby. Well, this woman refused. She left that state to another state. She gave birth. The story doesn't end there.

First, let me bring in today's hot topics panel, got a lot to talk about here. Julia Allison, entertainment journalist, psychologist Wendy Walsh, Steve Helling, staff writer for "People" magazine, Jawn Murray, editor-in-chief of alwaysalist.com. Welcome, welcome to all of you.

And we also have the woman who did the piece, interviewed these people, Elizabeth Cohen, our chief medical correspondent. Elizabeth, I want to get to you in a moment. I just want to open this up to the entire panel.

Julia, let me begin with you. I would love to hear from all of you. When you hear from the perspective of the surrogate, Crystal Kelley, did you think she did the right thing?

JULIA ALLISON, ENTERTAINMENT JOURNALIST: No, I don't. All moral issues aside, Crystal Kelley signed a legal document that explicitly stated, were there to be abnormalities found in the ultrasound, she would terminate the pregnancy. She's in breach of contract. And that sets a dangerous precedent for future surrogacy, that they can do whatever they want. If she was against abortion, she shouldn't have signed that document.

BALDWIN: It's interesting you bring up that point. We'll get to Elizabeth has a take on that. Wendy, what do you think?

WENDY WALSH, PSYCHOLOGIST: Well, actually, the contract didn't define very much what extreme abnormalities were and that's where the exchange came in. But you know, again, morals aside, the laws need to catch up with fertility medicine. We need to have laws that are clear state by state by state.

And the surrogacy contracts need to be more clear and, by the way, the plot thickens because as it turns out, these parents who were parents of the embryo, they had actually used a donor egg before they froze that embryo. So there is another mother potentially involved in this as well. We're talking about four adults and one child.

BALDWIN: That's correct. Actually let me just catch up, that's the perfect segue to you, Elizabeth Cohen. This woman, this surrogate goes from Connecticut to a state in which she can do this, to Michigan to have this child, finds parents, we can't say, you can't say where they live, the adoptive parents, but now they're taking care of this little baby.

COHEN: Right. They have adopted her. So this baby is now living in a family with other adopted children with special needs. And the couple also has biological children with special needs. And I'll tell you, I spent the day with them, lovely family, she looks like she's getting a lot of tender loving care.

She is smiling. She is happy, but she also faces an uncertain future. She will need more surgeries on her heart and on -- for other reasons too. And just her medical conditions, she has a shorter than usual life expectancy because of those medical conditions.

BALDWIN: And then the original -- the biological parents are now -- I don't want to say not consistently in the life of this child, with -- which they wanted to initially abort, they said this child would have had the life was better, life would have been worse, I should say. They're sort of in the life --

COHEN: They make phone calls, see how the baby is doing, they met the baby. The father has held the baby. They're not in and out of each other's lives, but there is a communication between the two families.

BALDWIN: Steve Helling, what a story. What do you make of this?

STEVE HELLING, STAFF WRITER, "PEOPLE": Well, you know, one thing that makes me a little bit nervous about it was that Miss Kelley really needed the money. When she really needed the money, she ended up doing something she says she wouldn't normally do, which was say I will have the abortion if you give me some more money.

BALDWIN: She wanted $15,000 instead of $10,000.

HELLING: She wanted 15 instead of 10. So it does make you wonder about her motivations. You've got to be sure with something that's so personal as your body when you're signing something that you've thought through the scenarios and it doesn't sound like she 100 percent did that.

BALDWIN: Did you question her motivations? Did you ask her about that?

COHEN: Yes, I certainly did ask her about that. I said you were willing to abort for $15,000. She said that 10 minutes later she regretted it. She actually had lost a child, years before at about the same gestational age, like halfway through the pregnancy. And she is still mourning that child and she realized she couldn't mourn a second child. So she says that she asked for 15 and immediately regretted it.

BALDWIN: It is a stunning story. I encourage every one of you to read it. Go cnn.com, read the entire sort of chronology and where it stands now. Thank you for sharing the story.

Hot topics panels don't go anywhere because this next one, this is no laughing matter. Did a popular TV show go too far by airing a so-called joke about Native Americans? I know I didn't get to you, Jawn Murray. You're up next. That's after the break.

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BALDWIN: When it comes to sitcom jokes, just about all the time, everyone, any kind of group is fair game to be the bud of a joke. But one group is taking particular offense to this joke that aired last week on the CBS comedy, "Mike and Molly." Here it was.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Who the hell said I'm moving to Arizona?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Captain didn't mention that?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Have you ever been to Arizona? It is just a furnace full of drunk Indians.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Really? That's not what it says on their license plate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Yes, that joke about drunk Indians not going over so well with the Native American group, Navajo Nation. Here is part of the statement they gave the ""Daily Times" of New Mexico.

Quote, "Alcoholism isn't funny. It isn't pretty. It is sickening. It is awful." That statement went on to say an apology from CBS may not be enough because the joke was beyond offensive.

Let me just tell you, CNN pick up the phone, we reached out to both CBS and Navajo Nation about this joke and we have not received a response from either group. Want you, Jawn Murray, to begin with this one here. Did the joke go too far?

JAWN MURRAY, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, ALWAYSALIST.COM: Brooke, I don't think so because here is a news flash. Peggy, the character on the show of "Mike & Molly," she's an equal opportunity racist, very much in the (inaudible) of the description. I mean, where is our sense of humor in America?

This week is "Mike & Molly," last week it was Joan Rivers and the Jewish joke. We have to get a sense of humor. This whole uber sensitive nature that we have and all the so-called advocacy groups that are mad about everything, it has got to stop. BALDWIN: I know you bring up Joan Rivers. We talked about that last week. You're right. We have the discussion, we can have it again. Are we becoming too sensitive? At the same time, you know, look, the two main characters met at Overeaters Anonymous. Is it fair to say some groups you can poke fun at and some you just don't go there?

MURRAY: The comedian, Kevin Hart, is on the cover of "Ebony" magazine, which is out right now. And in it, he talks about how he does no gay jokes because of what happened to Tracy Morgan. We're in this climate now where even the comedians have to be really careful and they have to temper their set because there is all these backlash for just trying to be funny.

BALDWIN: But isn't that the point, Wendy Walsh, of being a comedian? Isn't the point to offend and garner some kind of reaction? Whatever the reaction may be?

WALSH: The psychology of it is this, Freud said that comedy and humor is one of the best defenses against suffering. All comedy is tragedy viewed from across the street. I'm sure there is a very angry chicken out there who is mad about all the slurs when he crossed the road.

I didn't happen to like the gay man choir singing at Academy Awards about we saw your boobs because I'm a woman. So everybody is going to be offended by some joke. But it is a way that we're able to lighten up tragedy and have a moment of common healing through it. And, yes, this group has a right to be upset like the chicken has the right to be upset.

BALDWIN: Julia, you're nodding. Why are nodding?

ALLISON: I am. I totally agree. If you look at it, if you spend all your time complaining and writing letters and none of your time fixing the problem, you know, this is where you're at. I think just, you know, laugh about it and if you don't think it is funny, go fix the problem.

BALDWIN: Click. Turn the channel. I know that's what a lot of people say. Coming up, we're going to talk football. Top quarterback in the NFL just signed a huge contract, as in ka-ching, huge, $120 million, six years. Is any athlete worth that amount of money? We're going to debate that one after this.

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BALDWIN: Baltimore Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco living the good life. He went out and played his best football during the NFL playoffs, capping off with a Super Bowl victory and the MVP award. Well, now it seems all that hard work paid off. He's just signed the most lucrative contract in all of NFL history, six years, a cool 120 million bucks.

So Joe Flacco, you're now the highest paid QB in the league. You got to splurge, right? What do you with all the money? How do you celebrate? Here's how, Golden Arches, baby, 10 piece nuggets, fries and unsweetened ice tea at the drive through at McD's.

Drive through worker snapped this picture of Flacco hours after signing this ginormous contract, got posted to Twitter. I guess, the guy's got to eat when he's hungry. Let me bring my panel back in. Steve, McNuggets aside, I don't want to debate here whether he deserves this $120 million contract, but does it surprise you that he inked this kind of deal?

HELLING: No, it doesn't surprise me at all. When you think that the NFL made $2 billion, that's billion with a B, on the Super Bowl alone, then you see why they're paying their stars the type of money they're paying them. For the record, I would go to McDonald's too. I love me McNuggets.

BALDWIN: Julia, what do you think? This guy hardly a household name pre-Super Bowl, there are other quarterbacks even more elite, if you will. What do you think?

ALLISON: Well, I loved his quotes. He said I'm worth what I'm worth and I bring to the table what I bring to the table. So aside from the circular yogi berra-esque quotes, he seems to bring to the table some pretty impressive self-esteem. He said if he didn't get this much money, he would feel the team didn't respect him.

I'm not sure money is a good gauge of respect. How you treat other people, how you conduct yourself as a human being, that's what makes people respect you. I respect Olympic athletes who have achieved incredible feats being super human. I don't know how much money they're making. It doesn't matter to me.

BALDWIN: Wendy, how does one's mind set change? He seems like a pretty good guy, the interview I saw with him after the Super Bowl, has another kid on the way, here he is, his work spoke for him. When you sign a deal, I know in the NFL, not a guaranteed contract, when you sign for $120 million, how does your mind set change?

WALSH: Well, you enter that elite world, that private club, that land of no-nos where you can have whatever you want and sometimes that affects people's morals. But I'm actually disgusted by this. It underscores the terrible values in America that say, you know, just do sports, just win a beauty pageant, win an academy award.

You don't need to get educated. I happen to be dual citizen, Canadian, where there is no thing as a sports scholarships, only academic scholarships. If this guy wants to do well in our eyes now, give half the money and put it back into education, just saying.

BALDWIN: Jawn, why are your eyebrows so raised?

MURRAY: That was a whole lot she just said. I'll say this, he's worth it. He deserves it. If the Ravens can afford it, clearly they're paying it. I don't know if going to McDonald's will keep him in game shape. He may want to watch the McD's and get on the field.

But listen, we do know that two years after most NFL stars leave the NFL, they end up either bankrupt or having financial problems. So I hope he has a good financial planner because otherwise the headline, highest paid NFL player goes broke will be a bigger story than this will ever be.

BALDWIN: Yes, and then you have people, you know, you're Tom Brady taking the pay cuts. Who knows which way the NFL will go in the coming years. Bottom line, obviously, they make a lost money and people love watching their football, whatever the cost, of the tickets as they go up and up and up, perhaps to pay for the players.

Thank you to all of you, Julia Allison, Wendy Walsh, Steve Helling and Jawn Murray, my hot topics panel here on this Tuesday. Appreciate it.

Coming up, outrage after a nurse refuses to give CPR to a woman who eventually dies. The nurse says it was her company's policy. She couldn't step in and do this. There is now word, though, that charges could be filed. We're on the case next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Folks in one famous college town on edge after a string of racist behavior, a prankster or something bigger? I'm Brooke Baldwin. The news is now.

The Dow on the verge of closing at a record high, we're watching. Plus, snipers targeting giant rats in a battle against mutant rodents. And new information on the drone a pilot spotted in the skies above New York.