
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, May 25, 1990                   TAG: 9005250612
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A/2   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: KNOXVILLE, TENN.                                LENGTH: Short

LAWSUIT WINNER TO DONATE EMBRYOS

A woman who won a bitter custody battle for seven frozen embryos says she no longer wants them and will donate them to her fertility clinic, with hopes someone else can use them.

Mary Sue Stowe described her decision in papers filed with the Tennessee Court of Appeals. Her ex-husband, Junior Lewis Davis, has appealed a ruling in the couple's divorce case last September that granted her temporary custody over the embryos.

Blount County Circuit Judge Dale Young had ruled that "life begins at conception" and the embryos deserved the same legal status as children would have in custody disputes between their parents.

Young's ruling prevented Stowe from using the embryos until the appeals were settled.

"She does not wish us to discuss her decision," Stowe's lawyer, Kurt Erlenbach, said Thursday. "It's a very private matter and a very hard decision. She made it within the last few weeks."

- Associated Press

by CNB