"In the criminal justice system the people are represented by two separate yet equally important groups, the police who investigate crime and the district attorneys who prosecute the offenders." "These are their stories." "Seven, eight." "You're ovary's very supple." "Oh." "Are they good ones?" "Beauties." "At least three more eggs in those follicles." " Nine..." " It's almost over." "We're going to make you a beautiful baby." "Mr. Weston." "Yes?" "You can go do your part anytime." "Shouldn't I wait?" "Let's fertilize them while they're warm." "They've been waiting almost 40 years." "It's the, uh, it's the first door on the right." "There's some, uh, magazines on the table." "Thomas, we're going to be freezing some of these." "Go pull out some straws." "Mmm-hmm." "What the..." "Sarah?" "Sarah?" "Sarah?" "Her name is Sarah Purcell." "She's an embryologist." "When I went home last night, she was working." "Alone?" "Dr. Rutland was here." "She have any problems with Dr. Rutland or anybody else in the clinic?" "Sarah?" "No." "And how many people have the code to this keypad?" "Well, everyone who works here, I think." "Thanks." "Don't go away." "The groove in her skull looks like it came from the tank." "There's some blood." "So she quarreled with somebody, and he picked up the nearest heavy object?" "He was already holding it." "They use these gloves to work with these things." "These are extra-large." "She's gotta be a small." "So they pulled off in the struggle?" "It's a theory." "Latent will check for prints." "How cold are these tanks?" "You can touch the outside, but inside there's liquid nitrogen." "Stick your finger in and it'll freeze and shatter." "So the killer opened this tank." "Why?" "There's something in the sink." "So he was dumping this stuff." "She interrupted him." "Uh, Mr. Kravitz, would you come in a minute?" "What is this stuff exactly?" "Uh, they were frozen embryos." "Dr. Rutland takes eggs from women, then fertilizes them with their husbands' sperm." "These would have been babies?" "Maybe 20 or 30." "Hell of a way to make an omelet." "There was no sign of forced entry." "Now, is it possible that some of your employees aren't quite so loyal?" "We've never had a problem with anybody." "So who might have had a grudge against this place?" "The Pope." "Excuse me?" "I make babies in Petri dishes." "I implant four or five embryos and freeze the rest to try again later." "Some people think that's immoral." "Anybody try to do anything about it?" "We get picketed, we get hate mail." "That's why we keep the cold storage room locked up." "Nobody's allowed back there but staff." "You every have any trouble in that area?" "Just an accidental power outage a couple of months ago." "Temperature sensor went off." "Dialed my pager on a Saturday night." "And this was an accident?" "Contractor said." "We were having some work done." "Dr. Rutland." "Harvey, you have my deepest sympathy." "I was in Albany." "I just got back." "This is Harvey Purcell, Sarah's husband." "We're very sorry." "What happened?" "Can anybody tell me what happened?" "I was adding some circuits, upgrading fixtures." "Accidents happen." "On a Saturday night?" "What are you, the only contractor on earth who works weekends?" "I wasn't working Saturday night, it happened Saturday night." "Somebody flips the wrong switch Friday and it takes 24 hours for the power to go off?" "In the cold storage room, where it really matters?" "Look, what do you want me to say?" "How about what happened?" "Dr. Rutland called me and I went right over." "The circuit breaker was thrown." "I flipped it back, it blew again." "I checked the outlet box." "Somebody'd run a jumper wire between a couple of hots." "Somebody?" "I had a new helper." "Real whack job." "Always going off about CIA cover-ups, secret cloning." "Why didn't you report him?" "None of those frozen eggs got hurt." "And come Monday, I fired the guy." "Why make a headache for myself?" "So you're not wild about the Rutland Clinic, is that right?" "They manufacture human beings for money." "Is that right?" "And you think cutting off their power is the way to set things straight?" "The contractor couldn't prove that." "Nobody could prove that." "Until now, nobody tried." "So where were you last night?" "What does that matter?" "Answer the question." "I slept at my mother's, in New Paltz." "We're gonna ask her." "What do you think, I'm the Unabomber or something?" ""People For Natural Law." ""Be a monkey-wrench in the wheels of technology. "" "You a subscriber?" ""Rutland Clinic Plays God. "" "I know what I'm talking about." "I don't make things up." "I can't give you my mailing list." "One of your subscribers sabotaged that clinic." "Another one might have committed murder." "This is a respectable advocacy group." "I write books, I give lectures." "And stir up trouble for the Rutland Clinic." "It's an ethical and moral nightmare." "Did you know the great Dr. Rutland is experimenting with embryo cloning?" "You can try out one baby." "If you like it, you can go back and get its clone." "Or the baby can go back 20 years later, and give birth to its own twin sister." "Is this one of your lectures?" "You know what's next?" "Transplanting ovaries from aborted female fetuses." "Your mother could be an aborted fetus." "So they ought to be shut down." "You think that justifies killing a young woman?" "Of course not." "Then why don't you help us find the murderer?" "Not by giving you my subscribers' names." "Not while there's a First Amendment." "So, you want to go fight about this for a warrant?" "Or we go another way." "Here's an application to join People For Natural Law." "The guy really impressed you, huh?" "Down at the bottom, there's a box to check if you don't wish to receive literature from other organizations." "He sells his mailing list." "Latent found some partial fingerprints on the murder weapon that don't match any clinic employees." "It's not enough to run through the system, though." "Well, we got 2,000 names on the Natural Law mailing list to run them against." "Plus every contractor and part-timer at the Rutland Clinic." "There's more than 100." "Well, assisted reproduction's a big business." "You know, that newsletter guy is right." "Rutland is playing God." "He's playing with the brains God gave him." "Isn't that kosher?" "What, making babies in a test tube?" "Storing leftover babies in a freezer?" "Embryos." "Fine." "Embryos." "My sister couldn't have a baby." "They tried for years." "It was really painful." "Well, maybe she wasn't meant to have a baby." "Excuse me?" "Nobody's promised a happy ending." "Hey, Maxanne Vollers." "She's on the Natural Law list and the clinic payroll." "Why would you be a member of People For Natural Law if you were selling your eggs?" "Well, I wasn't at first." "I wanted to help people." "But it was harder than I thought." "Hormone shots every day." "My boyfriend had to inject me." "I couldn't have sex, I got moody." "So your mood changed about what Rutland was doing." "It wasn't that." "I met the couple I was supposed to be helping." "You met?" "I thought donors were supposed to be confidential." "Yes. "College graduate, blue eyes. " That's it." "But these people wanted to meet me, and they were paying a lot of money." "So Rutland bent the rules." "You felt like your privacy was being violated." "I met the couple." "He was over 60." "So was she." "I thought that was wrong." "Rutland bent the rules for cash customers?" "Maybe somebody who was casing the place asked for a full tour." "Including the off-limits cold storage room." "You still think he's using the brains God gave him?" "You want to be a kid whose mother turns 80 when you're still in high school?" "Hey, so some jerk went overboard." "People who can't have kids get to have them." "These places don't even need licenses, Lennie." "Barber shops need licenses." "Oh, yeah, get the government involved." "That'll really make it better." "My father is very particular." "He wanted to see the clinic." "He wanted to see everything." "Including the cold storage room?" "Yes." "That's where my embryos will be kept." "All of them." "I thought most people had some implanted right away." "I'm not trying to have a baby now." "Then why are you touring fertility clinics?" "I have leukemia." "I'm going to have radiation treatments." "They're going to make me sterile." "You're putting your eggs aside?" "With sperm from an anonymous donor." "If I live, I can have children." "If I die, my parents can find a surrogate mother and have a grandchild." "I thought my sex life was complicated when I had to wear a condom." "Is that freaky enough for you?" "She has a baby after she's dead?" "Ah, that's between her and her parents." "These scientists." "If they can do it, they do it." "Never think if they should do it." "We're looking for Mr. and Mrs. Wilson. 413." "Experimenting with embryos." "Experimenting with fetuses." "Come on, Rey." "If some doctor could cure your wife with cells from a fetus..." "It wouldn't be right." "Yeah, but you think Deborah would agree?" "Oh, you want to make this personal, Lennie?" "Let's say your daughter stored some eggs before she died." "You could still be a grandfather." "Does that sound good to you?" "This is it." "You sure this is the apartment?" "Card says Forester." "This is the number the Wilsons gave the clinic." "I'm Detective Curtis, New York City Police." "Are you Mrs. Wilson?" "No." "Forester." "This your apartment?" "For seven years." "What's this about?" "Did you recently tour a..." "Jesse!" "Leave him alone!" "Recently tour a fertility clinic?" "Are you out of your mind?" "I remember the Wilsons." "She didn't say much." "He was a character." "You think you could describe him to a police artist?" "Yeah." "Is he the one who broke in here?" "Well, he gave you a phony name and address." "We need to talk to him." "Wow." "He..." "He seemed like such a nice guy." "You spend a lot of time with him?" "Not when he was here." "A few days later I ran into him at Barnes and Noble." "We ended up having a cup of coffee." "Just friendly." "The guy is married." "Mr. Wilson wanted to see everything." "Including the cold storage room?" "Mmm." "Everything." "He said he was trusting us with his future children, so he wanted to see how the alarms worked and if we had any cameras." "That didn't strike you as odd?" "Mmm-mmm." "Not really." "He was a funny guy." "I mean, he could really make you laugh." "Stories about growing up in Hell's Kitchen." "He told you his life story while he was checking out your security?" "Oh, no, no, no." "I ran into him a few days later at the Y." "He ended up on the next exercise bike." "We got good descriptions." "This is Mr. Wilson." "How many employees did he accidentally run into?" "Four, that we heard about." "He talked to all of them about the high cost of living, about making ends meet." "Looking for someone to take a payoff who'd sell him a key and the code to the storage room." "Yeah, that'd be somebody who didn't mention Mr. Wilson running into them." "I'm running credit checks." "Here's a nurse who owes $2,000 to Saks." "Walter Schwartz pays every bill on time." "What's that nurse's name?" "Here's a better one." "William O'Rourke, maintenance man." "Seven credit cards." "Every one maxed out." "Mr. O'Rourke?" "I'm Detective Briscoe." "This is Detective Curtis." "Yeah, I know." "What are you doing here?" "Is that what you asked Mr. Wilson when he found you here?" "What are you talking about?" "Him." "You come here after work." "We followed you here." "So did he." "I don't remember the guy." "So we show this to some of the regulars, nobody's gonna remember seeing you with him?" "So I ran into him." "Things happen." "Yeah, like strangers meeting you in bars and offering you money." "How much did he pay you?" "He bought me a drink." "We're gonna find out." "I want a lawyer." "I've advised my client not to answer questions." "Fine." "Just don't stuff cotton in his ears." "At 9:00 a. m., we're gonna call seven credit card companies and find out if you just made any big payments." "If we did, we're gonna find out where you got the money." "And if it's from a guy calling himself Wilson, we're gonna arrest you as an accomplice to the murder of Sarah Purcell." " No..." " Mr. O'Rourke." "You didn't want her dead." "You were friends with her, weren't you?" "Can he answer that one, Mr. Kim?" "Don't you want to help catch the man who bashed her skull in?" "What does he get?" "Accomplice to burglary." "Third degree?" "No charge in the homicide." "If he tells us everything." "He said he worked for another doctor who wanted to get Dr. Rutland's techniques to help more people." "Very altruistic." "How much was he going to pay you?" "$5,000." "He wanted a key, the alarm code, how to disable the temperature monitor." "And this was gonna help other people how?" "I needed the money." "I didn't think anybody would get hurt." "He ask you for anything else?" "A list of which embryos were in which tank." "You give it to him?" "I gave him everything." "We met on a bench in Central Park, off 5th, near 72nd." "He asked for a list of which embryos were in which tank." "He was after a specific embryo?" "Well, we always thought it was some protester who wanted to trash the place, and Sarah Purcell wandered in when he'd only had time to do one tank." "Yeah, he might have been finished, not starting." "Find out which embryos he flushed." "There were six straws in that tank, one per couple." "Some of the information's out of date." "Why is that?" "People moved away." "People stopped responding to our letters." "Great parents." "When people succeed in having a child, or get divorced, or change their minds, they sometimes prefer to forget about leftover embryos." "We make couples sign a contract saying they'll implant them within five years." "Or what?" "Donate them to research." "All of the embryos in that tank were more than five-years-old." "Actually, more than eight." "Dr. Rutland called us after it happened." "It was almost a relief." "That embryos you and your husband created were destroyed?" "Almost a relief." "We made ten embryos." "Dr. Rutland implanted four." "We had a beautiful girl nine years ago." "Margo." "Four embryos and only one child?" "That's pretty normal." "We only ever wanted one child." "But you had six more sitting in cold storage." "Yes." "We're not Catholic, but we thought they..." "They could be children like Margo." "Can you think of any reason why anybody would want to destroy them?" "No." "They weren't of interest to anybody but us." "I was devastated when the clinic called." "Those embryos were my last chance." "You or your husband have a medical problem?" "My husband is dead." "Three months ago, his car crashed while he was driving back from our house in Connecticut." "I'm sorry." "We wanted to have children." "It was very important to him." "And to me, especially after he died." "I even tried to have sperm removed from his body." "After he died?" "They can do that." "Didn't work with Joe." "Because of the accident." "His internal organs." "But you still had the embryos." "Yes." "I was going to have them implanted." "There were five of them." "The odds were very good I would have a child." "Mrs. Galvin, the embryos in that tank were at least eight years old." "Uh, you look awfully young." "I married Joe three years ago, when I was 22." "Joe was 51." "So the embryos?" "He'd made them with his first wife." "So you were going to have his first wife's eggs implanted in you?" "Her eggs." "Joe's sperm." "They went to Joe in the divorce." "When he died, they came to me." "How did the first Mrs. Galvin feel about that?" "She didn't like it." "What does all this matter, anyway?" "Dr. Rutland said some maniac just went into the lab and started destroying everything." "That's what we used to think." "But now we believe the killer was after something specific." "Arlene Galvin." "275 Central Park West." "She's out." "You want to leave a message?" "You know where she went?" "Broadway matinee with her son." "You know, I'm not supposed to be giving out information about the residents." "You ever see this man with Mrs. Galvin?" "You're kidding, right?" "There." "Hey." "Yeah, hey." "We gonna do this easy?" "Francis, do what?" "These are police officers, Mrs. Galvin." "William O'Rourke, the guy who sold you the key to the clinic, just picked you out of a photo array." "We had a nicer shade of puke green at the 25." "Francis Curran." "Joined the force '77." "Made Detective '89." "Left the force '91, before the pension." "I had a few shots at lunch one day, then had a spirited discussion with my L-T." "Spirited, huh?" "Bastard kept sticking me on uniform details." "Election Day I was in the bag." "Puerto Rican Day, in the bag." "He calls me in, says pull out the uniform, the King of Belgium's in town." "Protective detail?" "I said, tell the King of Belgium to wear the uniform." "Otherwise, who's gonna know who the hell he is?" "We discussed it some more, then I helped him trip and fall." "So now you're driving cars for the bluebloods?" "Yeah." "I keep the riffraff away from Mrs. Galvin and the boy." "Same old, same old." "Working stiff doing errands for the upper crust." "She's a good lady." "She can't be good enough for you to take this fall alone." "So who's the King of Belgium need to be protected against?" "The Duke of Earl?" "Say hello to Richard Billings, Mrs. Galvin's attorney." "Arlene, are you all right?" "Yes, I'm all right." "I told them I wouldn't talk to them until you got here." "You're not talking to them now either." "I'm taking Mrs. Galvin and Mr. Curran home." "If you have questions for either of them, you may ask them through me." "Give us a minute, Counselor." "Thank you." "Latent ran Curran's prints against partials from the crime scene." "Perfect match." "So he's our guy." "But she had to put him up to it." "Because..." "Let me see if I get this straight." "Her ex-husband's second wife wanted to implant her frozen embryos?" "And give birth to her children." "A lot of people wouldn't be too thrilled about that." "Just not a motive I run into much." "You wouldn't have any actual evidence that she put him up to it?" "Curran can tell us if he wanted to." "Well, let's make him want to." "Well?" "Mrs. Galvin is free to go." "But I'm afraid your chauffeur is not available to drive you home." "Francis Curran." "Here it comes." "You're under arrest for the murder of Sarah Purcell." "You have the right to remain silent and the right to an attorney." "Anything I say can and will be used against me in a court of law." "Why hasn't Arlene Galvin been arrested?" "The case is still under active investigation." "You arrested her chauffeur." "You think he came up with the idea by himself?" "She killed my embryos." "That's murder." "Actually, Mrs. Galvin, under New York law, it's not murder to kill someone who hasn't been born." "That's ridiculous." "But the embryologist, Sarah Purcell, was definitely murdered." "Okay, her then." "Arlene was obviously behind it." "If you have information that could help us." "She was jealous of me and Joe." "She couldn't stand that I was keeping those embryos." "How upset was she?" "My God." "She only had a screaming fit in that Surrogate Court." "The issue of the ownership of the embryos became very contentious." "I proposed several compromises." "Any takers, Judge?" "Ah, neither woman would yield." "I see this kind of thing sometimes with pets." "You think they were motivated entirely by sentiment, or was there something in the will?" "Yeah, something is an understatement." "The bulk of Mr. Galvin's estate was put into a trust for the benefit of his children." "Children already born, or children born sometime in the future?" "Either one." "So if Coral Galvin implanted the embryos and had a child..." "Arlene Galvin's son would have to share the trust." "I referred the issue to a Special Master." "How much money are we talking about?" "Approximately $11,000,000." "No wonder they got emotional." "So you ended up ruling for Coral?" "I hadn't ruled on anything yet." "But that's the way I was leaning." "Did Arlene Galvin know that?" "Well, she must have." "Her lawyer got the recommendation of the Special Master, and he based his decision on the terms of the will and the divorce agreement." "When Joseph and Arlene Galvin got divorced, he didn't want her having any more of his children." "I can understand that." "When they did the property settlement, she got the Harry Winston pearls and the co-op on Central Park West." "He got the Range Rover, the country club membership, and the embryos." "Very nice." "When he died, his will left his second wife, Coral, all his personal property, which the surrogate was about to rule included the embryos." "She got very little cash because of the terms of the pre-nup." "So if she has her dead husband's baby, she hits the jackpot?" "Yeah." "She'd get to manage the kid's money." "Unbelievable." "Irrelevant." "If Arlene Galvin sent her chauffeur into that building, she's guilty of felony murder." "Can you trace the cash that the chauffeur used to buy the key?" "We can't prove that Arlene Galvin gave it to him unless he talks, and he won't." "Motivate him." "Who's this Mrs. Wilson he took to the clinic?" "Francis." "How they treating you?" "Not all bad in here." "Losing a little weight." "My cellmate's teaching me how to break into parking meters." "Saw your wife this morning." "She doesn't know anything." "She helped you case the clinic." "The people there recognized her picture." "If she's a suspect I should have been notified." "I told her I was doing a favor for a sick friend." "She's the one who's sick, Mr. Curran." "We know about her arthritis." "She had to quit her waitress job." "That's why you did it." "You needed the money." "You leave her alone." "You tell us who sent you into that clinic." "Don't answer that." "Fine." "You'll serve the maximum sentence, with your wife in a prison down the road." "That's a bluff." "Mr. Grove," "Arlene Galvin is paying your fee, isn't she?" "What's that matter?" "It matters if you're putting her interest above your client's." "I'll make sure the Disciplinary Committee hears all about it." "Now you're threatening me?" "I'm stating a fact." "And I'm offering him a deal." "Fifteen years instead of 25." "And you don't touch my wife." "Mr. Curran..." "What?" "It was eating Mrs. Galvin up." "That the bimbo might have her baby." "She told me to destroy those embryos and gave me $50,000." "Nobody was supposed to get hurt." "That girl tried to stop me." "I just wanted to get away." "We just got Arlene Galvin's motion to dismiss." "Says the facts don't make out the elements of felony murder." "She sent her chauffeur into that clinic to commit a burglary, during which he killed somebody." "That's the definition of felony murder." "If he was there to commit the burglary, which is defined as," ""Entering a building unlawfully with intent to commit a crime therein. "" "So?" "Arlene Galvin wanted Curran to destroy private property." "The embryos." "She's claiming that the embryos belong to her, so destroying them wasn't a crime." "No burglary, no felony murder." "That's a pretty fine loophole." "It's what the statute says." "We might have to go after her for depraved indifference or reckless homicide." "We'd have to prove that she knew Curran might kill somebody, and she didn't care." "With felony murder, she's nailed automatically as soon as Curran takes the stand." "Only if those embryos weren't hers." "The Special Master said they weren't." "For purposes of settling an estate, because they were included in a lump bequest of personal property." "Do you see a problem with that?" "Maybe not the same one you do." "You don't take that to a jury." "The Special Master's recommendation should carry some weight." "You want to ask 12 people off the street to decide that human embryos are property, like this lamp?" "Well, what are they?" "People?" "They're not property." "You can sell property, but it's illegal to sell embryos." "It's legal to destroy property." "Women have the right to abort fetuses, which are a hell of a lot more developed than those embryos." "Very good." "This is the kind of thing we don't want to get into." "You're arguing from abortion rights?" "You don't like abortion rights?" "Any woman with a brain ought to be able to figure out a better method of birth control." "See?" "This is just where we don't want to be going." "Felony murder is an appropriate charge, if the defendant was an accomplice to a burglary, and she was." "It wasn't a burglary if her intent was to destroy something that belonged to her." "Even if those embryos did belong to Arlene Galvin, didn't she commit a crime by destroying other embryos in that tank?" "Not if they were abandoned." "No one has come forward to claim those embryos." "Remarkable issues." "It all comes down to the divorce agreement?" "Yes, Your Honor." "The embryos were included in the property awarded to her late husband." "This was a binding, valid contract." "Only if Mrs. Galvin considered the embryos property." "She doesn't and she didn't." "Then why were they included in the property settlement?" "Because nobody thought to include an embryo settlement." "This was a formality." "These were Arlene Galvin's potential children." "Potential children she cared so much about, she sent her chauffeur to destroy them." "This crime was about money." "They were about to be implanted in another woman." "Look, even if they belonged to her husband after the divorce, they certainly reverted to Arlene Galvin when he died." "The Special Master determined that the embryos should go to Coral Galvin." "The Special Master's determination isn't binding on anyone." "This is a blatant appeal to emotion, immaterial to the issues in the case." "We ask you to deny the motion to dismiss, and to order the defense to keep the issue out of the trial." "It's not an issue of law." "There is no law in this." "I'm denying the motion, but I'll let the issue go to the jury." "What's that mean?" "If the jury decides that embryos aren't property, Arlene Galvin gets off?" "It's possible, Mr. Purcell." "The trial hasn't even started yet." "Do you know how big an embryo is?" "Like the period at the end of a sentence." "It's not a major setback." "Why are they arguing about embryos when my wife is dead?" "Sarah was not a potential human being!" "The judge was just plain wrong." "Esther Morrow." "She writes murder mysteries under a pseudonym." "So this trial's going to be research for her?" "The more emotion, the better." "The jury's going to get an earful about the poor orphan embryos." "Sounds like a bestseller." "Try and close the book." "Reckless homicide, manslaughter two." "She does the maximum." "Seven-and-a-half to 15." "I wasn't doing anything wrong." "Those embryos were mine." "They were made from 12 eggs that came out of my body." "Someone else had a valid claim to them, and you knew it." "A valid claim?" "Do you know why she wanted to have my child?" "For the money." "And what kind of life was that child going to have?" "At least it would be alive, which is more than we can say for Sarah Purcell." "You've got Sarah Purcell," "I've got Coral Galvin." "It's gonna be fun having her on the stand." "Dr. Rutland, did Francis Curran have your permission or authority to be in the clinic the night of the murder?" "No." "Did the defendant, Arlene Galvin, have such permission or authority?" "No." "Now, the embryos Francis Curran destroyed, can you describe them?" "Most of them consisted of a single cell, frozen in a saline solution with an anti-crystallizing agent." "Did they have heads?" "Hearts?" "Lungs?" "No." "You couldn't see them without a microscope." "Do you ever do research on such embryos?" "Yes." "And what happens to the embryos after the research is done?" "They're destroyed." "Is this generally considered ethical?" "Objection." "Dr. Rutland is not appearing as an expert in medical ethics." "His experience in embryology certainly qualifies him." "Overruled." "The witness may answer." "Yes." "Embryos are frequently destroyed." "In 1996, the British government incinerated 3,000 embryos because they were unclaimed after five years." "That's the law there." "Thank you." "No further questions." "Dr. Rutland, didn't the Catholic Church call that mass incineration a prenatal massacre?" "Objection." "Sustained." "Okay, let me ask you this." "Most of the embryos in the tank Mr. Curran emptied were supposed to be destroyed under your own five-year policy, isn't that right?" "Yes." "So why hadn't you destroyed them?" "There was no need." "We had plenty of storage space." "No need?" "Isn't it true that you and your staff are reluctant to destroy embryos unless there's a good reason to do so?" "Possibly." "Because you're accustomed to nurturing and protecting them?" "That is what we usually do." "Because they are a form of human life?" "A very rudimentary form." "A very rudimentary form of human life?" "Yes." "Thank you." "The embryos were mine." "The Special Master said so." "I knew it." "Arlene knew it." "Did you ever give Francis Curran or Arlene Galvin permission to destroy them?" "No." "I wanted to have a child." "Had you always wanted to have a child with your late husband?" "Yes." "Except for a rough spot we had a couple of years ago." "And during that rough spot, did you have an abortion?" "Yes." "It didn't seem fair bringing a child into the world if we were splitting up." "But we got over our problems, and began trying to get pregnant again." "Until we ran out of time." "Thank you." "Those embryos were my last chance." "Thank you, Mrs. Galvin." "Some little baby will never be born." "Some little baby." "Is that how you thought of the embryos?" "Of course." "Not as property." "Objection." "This is not an expert witness." "Your Honor, we're talking about perceptions here." "Overruled." "Answer the question, dear." "Well, I did own them." "You owned one or more little babies?" "Objection!" "I'll hear it, Mr. McCoy." "Well, they're not babies until they're born." "You had an abortion because you and Mr. Galvin were having problems?" "Yes." "Not because a child would get in the way of your busy social schedule?" "No." "It wasn't right bringing a child into a broken home." "A home without a mother and a father." "Yes." "But after your husband died, that didn't bother you anymore?" "No." "It was more important to keep a piece of my husband alive." "Because you loved him, or his money?" "I didn't care about the money." "She cares about the money." "You weren't interested in obtaining half of $11,000,000 for your child?" "No." "So you'd turn it down." "It wouldn't be up to me." "It would be for the good of the child." "My name is Aaron Fine." "I'm an emergency room resident at Pembroke Hospital in Connecticut." "Dr. Fine, have you ever seen Coral Galvin in your emergency room?" "Yes." "The night her husband was brought in after his car crash." "She got there about an hour later." "And what was her husband's condition when she arrived?" "Extremely critical." "He was intubated." "We were trying to stabilize his pulse." "He had massive internal injuries." "Did there come a time when she asked you about his condition?" "Yes." "A few minutes after she got there, she followed me when I went to call the organ bank." "I told her there was a good chance her husband would die." "What did she say?" "She said," ""Please don't do anything that would make it difficult to extract his sperm. "" "I thought she was delirious." "Did she afterward appear to be delirious?" "No." "I said I couldn't really worry about that just then." "She became abusive." "She said she was going to call a lawyer to get an emergency injunction." "This was while you were still trying to save her husband's life." "Yes." "She got in my way when I tried to get back to him." "I had to have security put her outside." "Thank you." "Arlene Galvin's net worth statement." "$2,500,000." "That diminishes her financial motive." "But she loses sympathy with jurors making $30,000." "Rutland Clinic records." "The tank's cryogenic history." "There were five frozen Galvin embryos in that tank." "So?" "So Arlene Galvin said she and her husband made 12." "She only had one implantation procedure." "They never implant more than five embryos." "Two unaccounted for." "We found them." "In another tank, labeled Galvin." "Are they intact?" "Perfect." "Frozen in time." "Great." "It's going to be a mess, isn't it?" "Yep." "What do I do with them?" "Put them back in the freezer." "And nobody takes them out of here." "They're evidence." "I've got to notify Mrs. Galvin." "Both Mrs. Galvins." "The District Attorney is preventing the Rutland Clinic from releasing the embryos to my client." "On the ground that they're evidence?" "Yes." "Evidence of what?" "The trial's not over." "It's impossible to predict what issues might arise." "Could you hazard a guess?" "Your Honor, we've already filed papers to prevent the release of the embryos to Coral Galvin no matter what position the District Attorney takes." "Surprise, surprise." "You can't let her have them, Your Honor." "They're mine." "You have to follow the law." "She only cares about the money." "Isn't that obvious?" "After the child was born, how would she treat it?" "You're worried about the life the child would have?" "Yes." "So you decided to destroy the embryo so it would have no life at all?" "As the mother of those embryos, the law of the land gives her the right to make that choice." "I didn't know what else to do." "I couldn't spend the rest of my life watching the child suffer." "My child." "Are you a mother?" "Do you understand?" "The only guidance I have is from the Special Master." "He said they're hers." "Judge, one of the major issues in this trial is ownership of those embryos." "If the jury ends up finding for the defendant, we'll be sorry if we've handed them over to Coral Galvin." "Now you're playing Solomon, Mr. McCoy?" "You want to cut the embryos in half?" "I just want to preserve the status quo temporarily." "I'm a little confused." "The whole basis of your prosecution is that the embryos belong to Coral Galvin." "Have you changed your mind?" "I just recognize the possibility that I might lose." "That the final judgment is up to the jury." "That we should all defer to that judgment." "I buy it." "It won't kill you to wait, dear." "Arlene Galvin deserves to go to jail." "I'm not sure Arlene Galvin's child deserves to be born to Coral Galvin under these circumstances." "Jack, we're trying to get justice here for Sarah Purcell." "Getting that justice means that a new life is created." "A life that may be miserable." "Or happy." "There's no way to predict." "You prefer the child not be born?" "I prefer it not be up to me." "I didn't sign up for the responsibility of creating human life." "So throw your own case so the jury won't decide those embryos belong to Coral Galvin." "No." "Maybe I should bring them into the courtroom in an evidence box." "Let them defrost." "Maybe you should keep your eye on the ball." "The other embryos in that tank..." "You show that any of them were destroyed unlawfully." "The jury doesn't have to consider the question." "Who owns the Galvin embryos?" "Hmm?" "We couldn't find most of the other parents." "The one couple we did find refuses to testify." "Maybe we can convince them they don't have a choice." ""Abortion in the second degree"?" "Abortion?" "What are you talking about?" "Causing a miscarriage in a woman without her consent is a crime." "The burden is on the defense to prove that they had your consent." "What miscarriage?" "I wasn't pregnant." "What's pregnant?" "Destroying a partially developed embryo is arguably causing a miscarriage." "It might not fly, but I will make the argument." "But win or lose, our names are going to be all over this thing." "Yes." "Why do you have to drag us into it?" "Because to get justice for a woman who was killed," "I need someone to say that their embryos were destroyed without their permission." "If you won't do the right thing by testifying, then I don't have a choice." "The right thing?" "Letting the world know how our daughter was conceived?" "Letting her know?" "That's the right thing?" "There's nothing shameful about in-vitro fertilization." "That's not it." "I was having trouble getting pregnant, even with the IVF..." "You don't have to tell them." "I want them to understand." "The doctor put four embryos in me." "Two of them started to grow, but they found a problem with my heart." "It was dangerous for me to carry one baby..." "So you aborted one of the fetuses." "They call it selective reduction." "Nice way to put it." "I won't tell my little girl we aborted her twin sister." "That wouldn't have to come out if you agreed to testify." "Mrs. Lasky, your daughter had more potential sisters in that tank." "There's a reason why you kept them alive all these years." "Arlene Galvin and her chauffeur killed them all." "With your testimony, they will be convicted." "Without it, I'm not sure I can make the charges stick." "After the fertilization procedure, what did Dr. Rutland do with the remaining embryos?" "He froze them." "He put them in that tank." "And you paid a bill every year to keep them there?" "Yes." "Did you give Francis Curran permission to destroy them?" "No." "Did you give Arlene Galvin permission to destroy them?" "No." "We'll take criminally negligent homicide." "Two-to-four." "The offer was manslaughter two." "Not seven-and-a-half to 15 years." "She didn't know anybody was in the building." "She sent in a former police officer, trained in the use of physical force." "She didn't even try to find out if the building was empty or not." "I didn't want anybody to get hurt." "What kind of a person do you think I am?" "One who's criminally reckless." "Five-to-ten." "Mr. McCoy, those last two embryos, you can't let that woman get them." "You've got to help me." "I already did." "The whole thing's going into civil court." "They'll probably still be fighting over it when Arlene Galvin gets out of prison." "How long do these frozen embryos last, anyway?" "Nobody knows." "Figures."