SOUTHLAND : Los Angeles Couple Flies West With Embryo After Suit Is Settled

A Los Angeles couple carried their frozen embryo out of a Norfolk, Va., clinic in a special tank today and flew to the West Coast with their potential child strapped in a seat next to them on a commercial airliner.

Steven and Risa York said the moment was bittersweet, coming more than four months after they filed suit against the Jones Institute for Reproductive Medicine to obtain release of the fertilized egg. They plan to have it implanted in Risa York next month at a hospital near their home.

“We are extremely happy to put an unpleasant episode behind us,” said Dr. York, as he and his wife left the clinic. “We are hopeful that we will be able to move on and make a family.”

York held a gray, two-foot high tank filled with liquid nitrogen that looks like a large thermos. Taped below its red top was a warning: “Keep upright.”

Last week, the Yorks and the Jones Institute reached a voluntary settlement, in which the couple released the clinic from any liability and dropped a $200,000 claim for alleged emotional distress.

The Yorks, who used to live on the East Coast, had tried to have a child through in-vitro fertilization at the Norfolk clinic between 1986 and 1987. Eleven embryos were implanted without success, and the 12th was frozen for future implantation.