Sperm

DNA tests have determined that semen found in the office of Kevin Murray, a court administrator who killed himself after a woman accused him of forcing her to perform oral sex there, was not Murray's, according to police sources. Murray, 42, the father of five, shot himself to death in a city-owned car in a Center City parking garage Jan. 25. The woman, Kathleen Zwaan, 24, has since filed a $10 million civil rights suit, claiming that shortly after Murray's suicide, Municipal Court officials fired her from her $80,000-a-year job with the court's protection from abuse unit.

MILO JACOB Manheim didn't celebrate Father's Day this weekend. Like a growing number of celebrity babies, 3-month-old Milo doesn't have a dad in his life - and that's exactly the way his biological mother wants it. Chalk up another victim of Hollywood's twisted family values. Actress Camryn Manheim, an outspoken liberal, is publicly defiant about her decision to be an unmarried single mother by choice. "There is no father," she tells reporters who request the identity of Milo's other parent.

Devon Wolfkiel knows her father is a thin man with hazel eyes and wavy brown hair - but she may never know his name. Wolfkiel, 20, a New York University student, was conceived with sperm from Penn State's Milton S. Hershey Clinic through artificial insemination. After graduating from high school, she found a paper in her parents' room with information, but nothing she could use to identify her donor. She said her search is not urgent, but in her late teens, when she began to feel a sense of medical responsibility for herself, she decided to try to find her donor's medical information.

More women are seeking to be artificially inseminated with dead men's sperm, University of Pennsylvania researchers have found. For over a decade, the post-mortem insemination has been done only when men give their consent before they die. But in the last few years, requests for sperm extraction from men who did not give prior consent have increased signficantly, according to a study published in the June issue of the Journal of Urology....

In what will most likely be remembered as a piece of seminal legislation, Wilmington City Council passed a resolution urging federal and state governments to confer the "rights of personhood" to each and every human sperm. "Laws should be enacted by all legislative bodies in the United States to promote equal representation, and should potentially include laws in defense of 'personhood,' forbidding every man from destroying his semen. " The resolution passed by a 8 to 4 vote on Thursday night.

The testimony of two experts about sperm found on slain jogger Kimberly Ernest may have added new levels of confusion for jurors considering the case against her two accused killers. The confusion arises because tears around the victim's vagina makes it appear that Ernest was raped, but the only sperm found was in her rectum. DNA testing showed it matches neither defendant Herbert Haak nor Richard Wise. The defense claims the sperm was left by the real killer. The prosecution contends it came from consensual sex prior to the murder.

It seemed a bizarre request: Pam Maresca, 22, wanted doctors to extract sperm from her husband hours after he had died in a car crash. The Florida woman thought perhaps she could keep part of him alive by having his baby. Today, his sperm remain frozen in a sperm bank while she decides what to do, and a new medical-legal controversy brews over the extraction of sperm from the recently dead. The practice, done at the request of loved ones, has become surprisingly common, according to a survey by University of Pennsylvania medical ethicist Arthur Caplan.

The prosecution in the Kimberly Ernest murder case is expected to complete its case today without calling an expert to testify on the age of the sperm found in the victim's body. In her opening statement, Assistant District Attorney Judith Frankel Rubino had indicated that she would provide testimony showing the "small amount of tailless sperm" found in the jogger's rectum was probably several days old and the result of consensual sex. Testimony that the sperm was a day or more old would explain why a DNA test of the sperm does not match the DNA of either Herbert Haak or Richard Wise, defendants in the murder.

Question: I had a major heart attack about two years ago. My cardiologist says my heart pumps only half as well as a healthy heart. I'm on a number of heart medications, but can you tell me whether anyone is studying a way to restore a weak heart like mine to the way it was? Answer: A heart attack is the permanent damage and death of heart muscle resulting from a blockage to the blood vessel supplying that area. Once an area of tissue is dead, it forms a permanent scar and is gone for good - or so we've always thought.

The Wilmington City Council has gone on record urging the U.S. and Delaware governments to confer the "rights of personhood" on each and every human sperm. In a resolution, the council declared: "Laws should be enacted by all legislative bodies in the United States to promote equal representation, and should potentially include laws in defense of 'personhood,' forbidding every man from destroying his semen. " The resolution passed, 8-4, Thursday night. Loretta Walsh, the councilwoman who introduced the resolution, told the Wilmington News Journal: "What's good for the gander is good for the goose.

Question: My 41-year-old daughter was diagnosed with breast cancer at an early stage. She opted for a bilateral mastectomy and chemotherapy. There was some lymph-node involvement. Her doctor is now trying to talk her into five years of Tamoxifen. I worry about the side effects like cataracts, stroke, aneurysm, and uterine cancer. Isn't a bilateral mastectomy followed by chemo enough? Answer: Research shows that using the anti-estrogen drug Tamoxifen in women who have had breast cancer reduces the chance that the breast cancer will return by up to 50 percent.

By Lawrence Krauss What do Glenn Beck's recent "Restoring Honor" extravaganza on the Washington Mall and a test for male infertility have in common? If you do your counting wrong for either one, you can reach wildly inappropriate conclusions. When asked how large the crowd at his rally was, Beck offered a range of 300,000 to 650,000 and has reportedly settled on 500,000. These are quite impressive numbers, and they've been widely quoted. One might, however, be forgiven for suspecting that Beck had reason to guess high and magnify the significance of his attempt to "restore" God to the American political arena.

FOR WHATEVER reason, this was the year for sperm donor comedies. We had likely Oscar nominee "The Kids Are All Right," and the now-in-theaters "Switch. " And, unfortunately, we also had "The Back-up Plan," featuring J Lo as a single gal who meets Mr. Test Tube the same day she meets Mr. Right. The romantic comedy was so forgettable that I can't remember it. The details of "City Island," though, are still remarkably fresh for a movie I didn't really dig. The new DVD release features Andy Garcia as a blue-collar tough guy who can't bear to tell his wife (Julianna Margulies)

Devon Wolfkiel knows her father is a thin man with hazel eyes and wavy brown hair - but she may never know his name. Wolfkiel, 20, a New York University student, was conceived with sperm from Penn State's Milton S. Hershey Clinic through artificial insemination. After graduating from high school, she found a paper in her parents' room with information, but nothing she could use to identify her donor. She said her search is not urgent, but in her late teens, when she began to feel a sense of medical responsibility for herself, she decided to try to find her donor's medical information.

Today's probing super-journalist Matt Lauer yesterday tirelessly probed and grilled and then probed some more until guest Mark Lester admitted "it's a possibility" that Michael Jackson's kids, especially Paris, "may be mine. " The former child star said he donated sperm to MJ years ago after the King of Pop told him he was "shy around women" and didn't think he could perform the procreative act. "I make no claim. . . . It's just something that happened," said Lester, adding that he would take a DNA test if asked.

MARK LESTER, a former British child star best known for saying "Please, Sir, may have some more?" as Oliver Twist in the 1968 movie musical "Oliver!" said in Britain's News of the World yesterday that he gave his pal Michael Jackson his sperm (in a container, we hope) and he believes Michael's daughter, Paris, is his biological child. (Sort of gives new meaning to the term "friends with benefits. ") Lester told the paper he's willing to take a paternity test. At the time of Lester's "gift," Michael was married to Debbie Rowe.