But that same juxtaposition of divine and human intelligence is also at the root of a number of questions being raised about the conception. Is it right to harvest someone's sperm posthumously? If so, should his prior consent be required? And who should have custody of the sperm? Cappy Rothman, the fertility specialist who extracted Bruce Vernoff's sperm, sees few ethical conflicts. "The family told me how desperately they wanted to do it," says Rothman, 61, who in 1978 became the first physician to take sperm from a man after his death.
He has since conducted such harvests more than a dozen times, though only once—in the Vernoffs' case—has the sperm been used. "Most of the times I [agree to] do it because I can feel the pain—the acute loss of the son or the husband," he says. "This gives them hope."
Some medical experts take a dimmer view. Sherman Silber, a St. Louis infertility expert who helped develop the method used in Gaby's case—injecting a single sperm into an egg—says it was never meant to be used in cases such as the Vernoffs'. "It's perhaps a psychologically unsound way of helping a woman who has suffered a great loss deal with it through denial," he says. "There is the risk here that the baby becomes an intentionally manipulated substitute for her lost husband." Glenn McGee, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania Center for Bioethics, agrees. "This beautiful little girl does not mean we should open the floodgates," he says. "It sets a dangerous precedent to say there can be reproduction without consent."
Bruce Vernoff had no reason to suppose he would die young and thus hadn't banked his sperm. But he had said he wanted children—which is largely why the family is comfortable with their decision. "I believe if Bruce was standing here," says his sister Suzy, 35, "he'd say, 'Dad, Mom, carry the torch. I know Gaby would be a beautiful mother. Go for it.' " Adds Vidalia, 72, a retired Spanish teacher: "He was all about life, and this is life."
In fact, Vidalia's son was a vigorous and sensitive boy who loved animals, music and mischief—and once, as a prank, removed every doorknob in the house. As a young man, he earned an associate's degree from Santa Monica College and worked a variety of jobs. Bruce was employed as a security guard in 1987 when the Vernoffs took in a housekeeper, Gaby Lucero, 20, of Durango, Mexico.
The second of 12 children, Gaby had helped raise her younger brothers and sisters and had learned to sew at a commercial school. But she longed to come to the U.S. and get an education. Seeking work, one of Gaby's brothers had come to L.A. and paid $350 to have Gaby spirited over the border. She lived with an uncle and took English classes for a year, then answered the Vernoffs' ad, moving in on June 24, 1987—Bruce's 27th birthday. "He was so warm, so nice," says Gaby. "My first thought was, 'Somehow I'm going to marry him,' and I did." But romance blossomed slowly. Eight months into their friendship, Gaby recalls, they were peering through a telescope, "and then we got too close and kissed. It was a long one."
Feeling it was inappropriate to live under the same roof as her beau, Gaby moved out and took a job with a family in Manhattan Beach. After they had dated three years, Bruce asked Gaby to move in with him. "I told him if you really want to live with me, marry me," she says. He did, on March 20, 1990. Scarcely a month later, Bruce and Gaby were en route to a movie when a car collided with their Honda. Gaby sustained a broken rib; Bruce's leg was fractured in 11 places, eventually requiring six surgeries. "She cared for him like Florence Nightingale," says Wally. Soon the couple were discussing children. "Probably a boy first and a girl afterwards," Bruce said on videotape at a family function. Recalls Gaby: "We were going to start at the end of 1995."
Their plans were thwarted on July 3 of that year. The night before, Bruce had gone out with friends for the evening. When he returned, he settled into the TV room; the next morning, Gaby went to check on him, but the door was locked. There was no answer when she knocked, so she climbed in a window. "I knew he was dead because he was cold and his body was hard," Gaby says. A blood test led to the conclusion that Bruce died from an accidental overdose of mood-elevating drugs prescribed to help wean him off painkillers he had taken for his broken leg. In her grief, Gaby also mourned the family she and Bruce would never have. "Then Suzy said, 'Wait a minute. I read when somebody dies their sperm is alive for 48 hours,' " Gaby recalls. "We started to call doctors." Hours later they found Rothman, who told them to meet him at the coroner's office at 6 a.m.—and to bring an ice cooler.
After examining Bruce's sperm, Rothman saw some evidence of motility. "It was very poor," he says. "But even if the sperm is moving sluggishly, it's alive. That's all you need." Gaby wanted to get pregnant immediately, but the Vernoffs urged her to wait until the shock of Bruce's death subsided. Eighteen months later, doctors made the first attempt to fertilize Gaby's eggs. When it failed, only one of the five vials of sperm remained. Last year she and the Vernoffs consulted Paul Turek, of the University of California at San Francisco, who had developed a new technique for identifying viable sperm. Turek and a colleague vetted the last vial. "We found several moving sperm after hours of toil," he says. Last June, two of Gaby's eggs were fertilized. One of them took.
Still grieving, Gaby hopes to find love again. "I want to give Brandalynn a brother or sister," she says. And how will she respond when her daughter asks about the remarkable circumstances of her birth? "I will tell her how much she was really wanted by all of us," Gaby reflects. "My husband, me and the whole family." And in that extraordinary desire, which willed her into existence in the face of a great sadness, Brandalynn, Gaby believes, will surely find comfort.
Richard Jerome
Lyndon Stambler in Los Angeles
- Contributors:
- Lyndon Stambler.
Saved by the Bell Reunion
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