Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, May 11, 1993 TAG: 9305110127
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RALEIGH, N.C. LENGTH: Short
The baby, John Franklin Wittle, was born at Rex Hospital in Raleigh, weighing 7 pounds, 12 ounces. His aunt, Julie Johnson, 34, a single Navy lieutenant, endured a 20-hour labor to give her sister and brother-in-law a baby.
The sister, Janet Johnson, had failed to become pregnant using more scientific means. So she sterilized a $2.95 kitchen baster in the dishwasher, got her husband, Mark Wittle, to make his genetic contribution, then carried it to her sister.
Julie Johnson inseminated herself twice in August with Wittle's semen. She stood on her head each time, while leaning against a wall.
"We thought there was no way it would work," Janet Johnson told a TV station Monday. But a home test disclosed in September that her sister was pregnant.
The parents are both 36 and live in Carey, a Raleigh suburb.
Janet Johnson, who has a doctorate in math education and works for Wake County, and her husband, a software engineer, went through nine treatments with fertility drugs, which were covered by insurance. They also went through one $15,000 in-vitro fertilization in July, which wasn't covered.
The couple explored adoption, but found legal obstacles too great to overcome.
by CNB