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CNN Sunday Morning

Healthy Baby Born From HIV Infected Father

Aired June 16, 2002 - 08:27   ET

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

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, this Father's Day is bittersweet for one New York family. A mother remembers the man who helped give life even as he faced death.

CNN's Maria Hinojosa has the details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARIA HINOJOSA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Every mother thinks their baby is a miracle. But 2-year-old Toby is a little more miracle than most.

This spunky blond boy was born to an HIV-positive father.

SALLY MORRISON, TOBY'S MOTHER: I think that the idea that we were getting near to me getting pregnant or having a child probably bought him some time.

HINOJOSA: The miracle here is that Toby and his mother Sally are both HIV-negative. Toby is the product of an obscure but growing medical procedure called sperm washing.

DR. MARK SAUER, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY: What we're trying to do is to separate out the sperm that are largely if not totally free of virus from the virus-containing part of the semen.

HINOJOSA: Just three sperm labs out of 400 in the U.S. have agreed to do the procedure. Some fearing other patients will be scared away by the presence of HIV-positive sperm. Other doctors fear accidental infections, or challenge the wisdom of enabling critically ill patients to have children.

MORRISON: A lot has been done to help, say, people with leukemia have children. That before people to go in to certain kinds of cancer treatment, they're encouraged to store sperm in case the treatment damages the sperm. Why should people with AIDS be different?

HINOJOSA: But while medical technology made it possible for Paul to create healthy life, it could not stop his own death from AIDS.

MORRISON: The night before he died, he talked about, we're going to have a baby this year. It's going to be a better year. And then it just sort of was over. HINOJOSA: Paul died long before Toby was even born. But his doctor continues to use the procedure at a rate of one per week.

SAUER: They see the road that they're on, but they still want to live a full life.

HINOJOSA: Something that came too late for Paul, though not necessarily for many others.

(on camera): Outside the United States, nearly 3,000 babies have been born using this procedure. Not one of them, nor their mothers, has been infected with the virus.

Maria Hinojosa, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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