Baby Sale

Last winter in California pretty 20-year-old Marian Brown found herself pregnant by a young truck driver named Beard. To give the baby a name Beard married her and then disappeared.

As she lay in the hospital at San Jose expecting the child, Marian was terrified by the expenses as well as the ordeal ahead of her. She did not want a baby. Her childless sister-in-law Mrs. Evelyn Brown came from Los Angeles and offered to pay hospital bills of some $200 in exchange for the unborn baby. Marian signed an agreement to that effect.

Two months ago the baby was born, and named Nadeen Gloria. For eleven days the mother nursed her child, began to love her and regret the contract. It was too late. Insisting on the agreement Mrs. Brown claimed possession and took the baby home.

The real mother last fortnight went to a Superior Court judge, obtained a writ demanding the return of her baby. Armed with the writ, a search warrant and a subpoena for Mrs. Brown's appearance in court, deputy sheriffs went last week to Mrs. Brown's house. While a male deputy held off screaming Mrs. Brown, a woman deputy found the child in its crib, wrapped it in a blanket and departed for the court. Mrs. Brown went raging to get her husband.

In court the baby slept peacefully for half an hour, then, began to yowl. "Maybe she is hungry," ventured the deputy. "I want my baby. Please, Judge," pleaded the mother. "I was crazy when I sold her." Said the desperate deputy: "For God's sake, Judge, do something. It's after three o'clock and the kid hasn't been fed since morning."

So the judge acted without waiting for Mrs. Brown to arrive. Mrs. Beard left the courtroom with her baby. Fifteen minutes later irate Mrs. Brown came rushing in, waving her contract. Explained the judge: the sale was invalid. By law the State has jurisdiction jointly with parents over all minors. Mrs. Beard had proved she was the child's natural mother and that the baby's grandfather would care for them. The law would not take a baby from its mother so long as she is a fit and proper guardian.

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