The Story of Mary Sue and Junior Davis

Abstract:     
Davis v. Davis appears in many property books as well as some casebooks about family law. It features property rights in unique goods, and stimulates discussion about whether embryos should be the subject of court decisions, much less market transactions. Davis touches on ideas of commensurability, self, and dignity.

The story of Junior and Mary Sue Davis can also be seen as a cautionary tale about a family destroyed by lost pregnancies and the havoc this causes in a marriage. Once the centripetal forces reach gale strength, Davis turns into a power struggle at an elemental level, one in which middle class former spouses are willing to pay huge sums to litigate, and publicly vent their plight and their disaffection. What is most intimate and private becomes the subject of mainstream television programming, editorial commentary and continued fame, even 15 years later.

This piece will address the question about why having a genetic child first became so important that Junior and Mary Sue would spend more than their combined yearly salaries on IVF and the even more experimental cryopreservation technique. It will discuss why bearing a child might ultimately have become less meaningful than possessing the right to disposal of the frozen embryos, and thus why first Junior and then Mary Sue changed their minds.

Keywords: Davis, embryo, cryopreservation, property, abortion, ART, artificial reproduction

JEL Classifications: J12, J13, K39

Working Paper Series