Surrogate-Born Baby Now With Genetic Parents

The child born to surrogate mother Anna L. Johnson, a boy who was delivered into the eye of a legal and emotional hurricane four days ago, went home to his genetic parents Saturday.

The infant’s departure from the hospital was as unusual as his test-tube conception, his gestation in the womb of a hired surrogate, and his birth into a potentially precedent-setting custody dispute.

The still-unnamed newborn left St. Joseph Hospital in Orange at 10:15 a.m., carried out the front doors by a pediatric nurse in a green scrub suit and flanked by a uniformed police officer, a clutch of hospital officials and the baby’s court-appointed guardian, William Steiner. The infant, wrapped in a striped blanket, was swept past a bank of reporters and photographers and loaded into a borrowed infant seat in Steiner’s car.

Steiner drove the child to the home of Mark and Crispina Calvert, the Orange County couple who hired Johnson to bear their baby. Crispina Calvert, 36, said that when Steiner pulled into the driveway, her husband could no longer wait inside. The 34-year-old insurance underwriter ran to the front door and out onto the steps, smiling and extending his arms so Steiner could hand him the still-sleeping baby.

After he crossed the threshold of the Calverts’ home, the infant’s life began to look a little more traditional. A houseful of relatives leaned over him, talking baby talk and watching rapturously as his diaper was changed.

“We’re just so jubilant we have our child,” Calvert said. “We appreciate Anna Johnson’s consideration and we’re extremely grateful for her compassion in this situation.”

Johnson, who was staying with friends in Mission Viejo, waited patiently until late Saturday afternoon, when she and her 3-year-old daughter, Erica, visited the baby at the Calverts’ home.

Steiner, who will monitor Johnson’s visits with the baby, said the session was “tense and awkward at first” but went “fine” after that. As an icebreaker, Johnson gave the Calverts a rum cake.

“I sort of got the feeling that this baby was . . . the peacemaker,” Steiner said. “The attention just focused on the baby and away from all the acrimony and problems.

“She changed the baby and held the baby and the baby slept a good part of the time,” Steiner continued, adding that Johnson spent some time alone with the infant and also visited with the Calverts, discussing the baby’s birth.

Johnson also had pictures taken of herself with the baby, just as the Calverts had done in the hospital the night he was born.

Looking upbeat after the visit, Johnson smiled but would only say she was “fine” as she left the home. Johnson’s attorney, who drove her to the home, said he wanted to respect the Calverts’ privacy and preferred that she not comment after the visit.

Ironically, it was Johnson--who is battling the Calverts for shared custody--who made certain that the baby went home with the couple.

During a five-hour session with a judge Friday, the parties could not agree on who should take the infant home temporarily, until another custody hearing could be held. When her lawyer called her at the hospital to say that the judge was about to place the boy in a foster home for a short while, Johnson decided that it was better for the baby to be with the Calverts.

Johnson’s attorney, Richard C. Gilbert, said he plans to seek an order from the state Court of Appeal Wednesday or Thursday placing the baby with Johnson and declaring that she has parental rights equal to those of the Calverts. If the court agrees to hear the case, a custody hearing Thursday in Orange County Superior Court would be postponed.

Johnson, 29, is the first surrogate mother to ask a judge to declare that she is the legal parent of a child that is not genetically related to her. She agreed to be implanted with an embryo made from the Calverts’ sperm and egg. She later backed out of the $10,000 contract and sought to keep the child, saying the Calverts had neglected her during pregnancy and would make unfit parents.

The Calverts are unable to bear children because Crispina Calvert’s uterus had to be removed.

Gilbert said Johnson, a single mother, rode home from the hospital in silence Friday night and was in an emotionally delicate state Saturday. He said her 3-year-old daughter had nightmares Friday night because she “wonders what happened to her baby brother.”

Johnson will probably have to stop breast-feeding the baby, Gilbert said, because arrangements would be difficult and she feels that the Calverts do not want her to bring breast milk for the baby.

Although Johnson is “very comfortable with the decision she made” Friday, she would prefer to have the baby living with her, and she still wants a court to declare her a legal parent and affirm what she believes is her right to participate in raising the baby, Gilbert said.

Mark Calvert, meanwhile, said his wife was so overjoyed she “won’t put the baby down. He’s constantly in her arms.”

After the court hearing Friday, the couple stopped and bought diapers and a baby bottle on the way home. Crispina Calvert said she dashed out Saturday morning and, in a half-hour shopping spree, bought a white changing table, a baby monitor, an infant bathing tub and a few tiny T-shirts.

She said she is trying not to think about what might happen next in court.

“I’m just thinking about my baby and watching his beautiful face,” she said.

Times staff writers Gebe Martinez and Mark I. Pinsky contributed to this story.