The Meddlers (5 page)

“This knowledge has been of great use. Some researchers working on the removal and examination of fertilized cells have been able to reject those which were clearly mongoloid, only replacing those known to be able to produce normal infants.

“With all this background work on which to draw, I decided two years ago to mount an experimental project which would define the difference between nature and nurture. I would select potential parents and investigate their genetic structure in detail,
and then arrange for a conception to take place. I would then investigate the cell structure of this conception, predict the individual, and implant the fertilized cell into the uterus to develop to a full-term infant.

“Thereafter, the child would be reared in a carefully controlled environment, constantly observed and monitored. When he reached maturity, we would be in a position to know precisely which of his behavioral patterns he had inherited and which he had learned.

“The practical uses of such an investigation would be considerable, I thought. For example, if aggressiveness can be undoubtedly shown to be an inherited trait rather than a learned response—as it is in those men with the extra male chromosome—we would be in a position to reject all conceptions which would produce an excessively aggressive individual. We could eventually remove from human life all the characteristics which make for human distress—criminality, war-making, and the like.”

He looked up and let his eyes move across the rows of faces before him. The blankness had gone from them, he noticed with satisfaction. They were sitting and staring at him in complete absorption. Aware of the complete control he had over them, and enjoying it, he went on with more deliberation.

“I selected potential parents from university students. Much genetic data was collected from some two thousand young men and women, and using the computer services of two cooperating universities, I eventually selected six potential mothers. I will not now detail the reasons for failure with the first three women—we lost some seven selected conceptions—but go straight to the one with whom we succeeded.

“She is a young woman of considerable intelligence and physical health—a splendid specimen of humanity. She cooperated fully in the project in a most commendable spirit of scientific interest. After several months of trials with human gonadotrophin and conceptions which were made in vitro—the mother of course never met the donor of the sperm which fertilized her ovum—a conception was selected and detailed predictions made—”

“Dr. Briant, would you permit another interruption?” Michael Bridges’ voice cut across. “It would help if you would define the term ‘in vitro,’ I think.”

“What? Oh.” Briant allowed himself a small sigh of irritation. “Very well. Recent work, notably in Cambridge as well as in the United States, has demonstrated the feasibility of exposing a female ovum to spermatozoa outside the human body—in which such exposure normally takes place—in a special medium. Fertilization can then take place and the first cell divisions can occur. Thereafter, the zygote—the name given to the resultant collection of cells—can be implanted in the uterus. This process is called inovulation, and can be likened to artificial insemination, in that the egg cell is deliberately removed from the woman’s body, and reinserted after fertilization. Does that answer your needs?”

“In other words, a test-tube baby?”

“In your words, perhaps. Not a term I would use myself, since I do not find it particularly felicitous. If you cannot use the terms I have offered you, the choice of another is up to you. May I now proceed? Thank you.

“Very well. After a series of trials, a conception made in vitro was selected, predictions were made about it, and it was implanted in the uterus of our volunteer mother. We could have used a different host mother—using ova from one woman, and allowing another to act as the incubator for the conception—but we preferred to use the donor of the egg cell as the incubator, mainly to avoid any risk of rejection. We thought it possible that we might get an auto-immune reaction otherwise—similar to that which occurs when a patient rejects a heart or kidney transplant. So, the selected conception was implanted, and the pregnancy went to full term. The infant, which was incidentally precisely what we predicted he would be in physical makeup, sex, coloring, and so on, was born here seven days ago. It is this fact that… leaked—and causes your presence here today.

“From now on, the infant will be reared as I explained, and not for at least twenty years will we be able to report in much detail on the results of our investigations, although preliminary papers will be published in the professional press from time to time. I must
here point out to you that any attempts on the part of people outside the project to have any contact with the child will be vigorously rejected. Such contact may seriously invalidate an experiment into which a great deal of work and effort has already been put. I trust you will therefore treat this matter with… responsibility.”

He sat down and, thrusting his hands into his trouser pockets, stared coolly at the audience which sat in complete silence before him.

But then a wave of movement rustled across them, and several people jumped up waving notebooks.

It was a woman who got the first question in, her voice rising shrilly above the others.

“Dr. Briant! Are we to understand you have made a test-tube baby? That you are going to bring him up in a… in a
laboratory?
A human baby is a
guinea
pig?”

The horror in her voice was almost ludicrous, and Briant raised his eyebrows slightly. “As I have said, ‘test-tube baby’ is not a term I would ever use. What I have described to you is a controlled conception. As for rearing the child in a laboratory, the unit prepared for him is not equipped with bunsen burners and retorts and animal cages. He will have every comfort and care, I assure you—probably in excess of that provided for any human infant ever.”

“But what about his parents? Where do they come into it? Have they agreed to let their baby be treated in this fashion? What sort of parents can they be, to give up their baby like this?”

Only a momentary tightening of the jaw showed Briant’s irritation. Emotional idiot! he thought, but tried not to let his contempt show in his voice.

“You appear to have misunderstood what I have told you. The father is known only to myself and the computer, and none of the young men who cooperated in giving us specimens of their sperm knew for what purpose it was given. The child’s natural father has no idea that he is a father.” He smiled thinly. “Not, perhaps, an unusual experience for virile young men.”

“But the
mother
!” The woman reporter almost wailed the words. “She knows she has a baby—is she giving him up just like that? Doesn’t she
care
?”

“I told you she entered into the project in a spirit of most admirable scientific curiosity. I must point out that she was selected with considerable care. She is not a woman with an interest in maternity. She at no time had an emotional link with the father of the infant—she never met him, as I must again repeat—or an emotional involvement with the pregnancy. She saw her role as purely an incubatory one, and will now return to her own work as a biologist—although not of course on this project—having made her most valuable contribution to my work. She will no doubt maintain her interest in the progress of the project, but not in the child in any possessive sense. She’s too intelligent for that.” And this time he let the contempt enter his voice.

“What’s intelligence got to do with it?” This came from a man standing behind the shrill woman. “What about good old-fashioned mother love? Don’t tell me intelligent women don’t love their children! My wife’s got a degree in mathematics, but she loves her kids!”

“No doubt. But mother love is a compound of involvement with the father and care of the infant. We know of course that this mother has the normal strong biological drive to care for her offspring, and if she did handle him would no doubt develop an emotional involvement. But, as a scientist, she was and is prepared to tolerate this drive while it lasts without satisfying it. We have done our best to protect her; we ensured she would not see the baby at birth, removing him from the Maternity Unit as soon as he was delivered. It is already apparent to us that she has no emotional link with the child; she is indeed now only anxious to return to her own work, which she will do in about ten days’ time.”

“Hence the kidnaping story,” Bridges said, and Briant looked at him sharply.

“What was that?”

“We… heard that the child had been kidnaped with the full collusion of the hospital staff,” Bridges said blandly.

“Who told you that?” Briant snapped.

“Ah, I’m sorry, Dr. Briant. Must protect my sources, you know.”

Another journalist cut in then. “Dr. Briant, this mother never saw the father either?”

“I keep saying that!”

“Christ! A virgin birth, no less!”

“Hardly,” Briant said sharply. “And may I suggest that this is precisely the kind of overheated sensational attitude I would most strongly deplore. This woman may be technically a virgin in that she has never experienced intercourse, either with the father of this infant or anyone else. It was necessary to the experiment that we select a sexually mature but inexperienced woman. Previous intercourse may have in some way altered her—set up antibodies of an unknown kind. We do not yet know whether this can happen, but we could not risk invalidating the experiment by using a sexually experienced woman. Also, if a woman at twenty-six is still a virgin it suggests she is not an overemotional type. That is, she would be in part protected by her own nature from the complications of emotional involvement.”

“But the knowledge derived from psychological studies into the human personality suggests that sexually frigid women are just as liable to emotional involvement as anyone else,” Bridges cut in. “Maybe she’s the chilly type you describe because of psychological problems. Couldn’t that damage your baby?”

“I have little faith in the unsubstantiated assertions of psychologists,” Briant said dryly. “I can assure you this woman is what she appears—an intelligent scientist untrammeled by the usual preoccupations of women.”

“You sound like a misogynist, Dr. Briant!” Bridges said. “That isn’t really relevant, I suppose, though it would be interesting to know whether you inherited the trait.” He looked at Briant a little wickedly and rode smoothly over his attempts to retort. “But to return to the baby. His mother may, as you suggest, have no need to love him. But hasn’t he a need to be loved by
her
? Might I remind you of the work of Dr. Bowlby, who pointed out the effects of mother deprivation on children? Of course, he is perhaps more a sociologist and psychologist than a biologist, but still…”

Anger was getting close to being out of control, Briant suddenly realized, and he made a conscious effort to push it down.

“I am fully aware of the infant’s need for a permanent mother figure, and this has been taken into account. The child is receiving
his direct physical care from a carefully selected woman who will be his nurse-cum-mother for the next few years. And you may like to know that we have not neglected the infant’s
biological
need to suckle. This woman, although not recently delivered, once bore a child, and so we have been able, by the use of selected hormone therapy, to establish lactation again.”

“A wet nurse! Back to the Middle Ages!”

Briant ignored that and looked instead at a man waving his notebook eagerly from the back row.

“What about the legality of this, Dr. Briant?” he called. “Can you rear this child this way? Whatever the mother’s feelings, she’s got rights, hasn’t she?”

“Of course she has. And she has assigned them to me. In other words, I will in due course adopt the child. As his legal guardian, I am then legally able to decide his care.”

“But it’s so
cruel
!” the shrill woman cried. “There’ll be an outcry, bring up a human baby as though he were some sort of experimental animal! The authorities surely can’t allow it!”

“Cruel?” Briant stared at her as though she were demented.

“Madam, I do not intend to beat, starve or in any way maltreat this child. He will have every possible care, has an inheritance that ensures perfect physical health, high intelligence, an even disposition, and an inquiring mind. I can assure you that any busybody would be hard put to it to prove maltreatment! If you are so concerned with the kindly nurture of infants, I suggest you turn your journalistic—
conscience
—to those children begotten by inadequate stupid parents being reared in appalling conditions in slums all over the country. A newspaper campaign to prevent breeding by some of the substandard individuals with whom society is saddled would be much more to the point than vapid maunderings about the welfare of a child who has been endowed with an almost perfect inheritance, and is being given the best possible care!”

He suddenly became aware of Kegan beside him, sharply tugging at the edge of his jacket, and turned to stare at him, blotches of anger flaming in his cheeks.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” Kegan said loudly, “I am sure you will understand Dr. Briant’s… distress at the imputation of cruelty.

I must give you my personal assurances that this infant is receiving perfect care. The unit in which he will live is within the hospital grounds, and was most carefully prepared and equipped. As well as by Dr. Brian, he is supervised by our Dr. Saxby, a most eminent pediatrician—child-care specialist. We have assigned considerable staff to cooperate in his care—dietitians, physiotherapists, all sorts. You really need not fear that Dr. Briant will be anything other than an excellent father to this child. After all, he is a father himself! He has a daughter of sixteen, a son of seventeen, both charming and most happy young people! It is natural that any suggestion of lack of… of affection for this child should so upset a man who is of the highest integrity—”

“Thank you, Mr. Kegan,” Briant said sharply. It was infuriating to have let anger steal his tongue as it had. He had been pushed into this bloody situation by the need to attract public sympathy, and yet had been stupid enough to let the manifest idiocy of his questioners drive him to make a most unsympathetic exhibition of himself. And it didn’t help to have that idiot Kegan see what he had done and try to extricate him.