The Michigan Daily
Vol. XC, No. 22-S Ann Arbor, Michigan-Saturday, June 7, 1980 Ten Cents Sixteen Pages
Jobless,
a e soars;
Michigan
wracked
From AP and UPI THE NUMBER of idled workers in-
The nation's unemployment rate May was the highest the state has
rocketed to 7.8 per cent in May, the recorded since it began compiling labor
highest since President Carter took of- force estimates in 1956.
fice, as the deepening recession took its Labor officials blamed the jump in
toll on jobs but continued to cool in- unemployment on the entry of summer
flation, according to government data job seekers into the labor force, on top
released yesterday. of an already large number of unem-
Separate reports on jobs and ployed auto workers. The work force
wholesale prices released by the Labor climbed by 88,000, to 4,321,000 in May.
Department reflected the sharper- State Labor Director C. Patrick Bab-
than-expected falloff in the U.S. cock termed the unemployment rate "a
economy, which is predicted to decline shock. I think hopefully it's going to
through the rest of the year. turn around ... but I think June could
AN ESTIMATED 607,000 persons - be worse," Babcock said.
the largest number ever recorded - THE 0.8 OF a percentage point in-
were out of work last month in unem- crease in the national unemployment
ployment-wracked Michigan where the rate in May equalled the rise in April
' auto industry continues its downward and produced the largest two-month
spiral. jump in joblessness since World War II,
State labor officials said the number the Labor Department report said.
of idled workers surpassed the depths It meant that nearly 8.2 million
of the 1974-75 recession. people were out of work last month,
Those out of work totaled 14 per cent compared with 7.3 million in April and
of Michigan's work force. It was the 6.4 million in March.
worst level, on a percentage basis, sin- The jobless rate had not been at a 7.8
SPhoto ce the 14.9 per cent posted in June, 1975. per cent level since November 1976, the
The May jobless rate was up 1.8 percen- month in which Carter was elected to
PRESIDENT CARTER ANSWERS reporters' questions in the Oval Office tage points - 84,000 workers - from office. And it was 0.4 of a percentage
Thursday after signing a veto to a bill rejecting his proposed gasoline import April and nearly double the level posted point higher in May than it was in
' fee. Both the House snd Senate voted to override the veto. See Story, Page 2. in May, 1979. .See UNEMPLOYMENT, Psge 9
Infertile
.couples find
hope. in
surrogates
By NICK KATSARELAS
Deborah and Tom are a married couple living in
California. Deborah had cancer of the uterus, and a
complete hysterectomy prevented her from ever
having children.
Then the pair found out about a Dearborn,
Michigan attorney who could help them find what they
needed.
A womb for rent.
THE PROCESS IS surrogate motherhood, a
relatively new practice which gives hope to couples
who cannot have children. The practice is expensive,
and delves into some fundamental areas of medicine
and some murky areas of law.
Here's how it works: the husband of an infertile
woman supplies the sperm for the artificial in-
semination of another woman. She agrees to carry the
child to term and then give up the child to the couple
in adoption court.
Noel Keane, the Dearborn attorney, may be one of
the foremost experts in the area. So far, five children
have been born for couples represented by him; the
first was three years ago.
KEANE SAID IT is illegal in all but one
state-Kentucky-to pay a surrogate. But he is
challenging the constitutionality of a Michigan
statute which prohibits payment to a mother to carry
a baby and then put it up for adoption. The statute
prohibiting "black market babies" reads, in part:
"The State's interest expressed in the statutes
... is to prevent commercialism from affecting a
mother's decision to executea consent to the adoption
of her child."
"If it's a legal act without payment," reasoned
Keane, "why shouldn't it be legal with payment?"
IN LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY, Dr. Richard Levin
operates Surrogate Parenting Associates. For a fee
of between $17,000 and $20,000, he will match infertile
couples with surrogates. The cost includes genetic,
psychiatric, and physical tests of the surrogates.
See SURROGATES, Page 14
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