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Help for Single Moms; Battle over Embryos; New CNN Series "High Profits" Examines Legal Pot. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired April 17, 2015 - 08:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:33:45] JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Time now for the five things to know for your NEW DAY.

Number one, a 23-year-old man indicted on terrorism charges. Authorities say Abdirahman Sheik Mohamud trained with Islamic militants in Syria and returned to the U.S. planning to execute American soldiers.

Two key Middle East allies overcome by rampaging extremists. ISIS forces in Iraq threatening to take control of Ramadi, while al Qaeda has just seized a key airport in Yemen.

With outrage building for 160 days, Senate Republicans are hinting they could be close to a vote on Loretta Lynch to be the next attorney general. Harry Reid is threatening to force a vote if it does not happen soon.

The Tulsa deputy who gunned down a man during an undercover sting says he is still in shock. He claims it was not intentional. He also slammed allegations that his training records were falsified.

And the force is back and it is awesome. Gasps, cheers, and applause at director J.J. Abrams unveiling the trailer, the new one, for "Star Wars" episode seven, "The Force Awakens" in California. The reception, very enthusiastic on social media.

For more on the five things to know, go to newdaycnn.com for the very latest.

Jabba.

[08:34:56] CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Being a single parent is hard enough. Battling cancer on top of it is overwhelming. This week's CNN hero runs an organization that steps in when everyday tasks become a real struggle.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was diagnosed with stage four breast cancer just about a month after my daughter's dad and I split up. All I could think about was, oh, my God, my daughter. I can't do this to you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Here I go, mom. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: With chemotherapy, there's a lot of fatigue. When you can't really do much, and you're looking at the dirt on the floor. It's like one more level of stress.

My friend Michelle was a single mother of four. And when she was diagnosed, she struggled with just day-to-day. When she passed away, we realized other people like her needed help.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Good morning.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Good morning.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Singleton Moms provides practical support for single parents battling cancer.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You have these people that don't know you and you're going to help me with cleaning my house?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We help them pay a couple bills, and then we provide day-to-day needs for their house.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you have a protein preference?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's about being that support.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Neighbors helping neighbors, family helping family. This is what we should be doing for one another.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I appreciate it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Singleton Moms has definitely helped me with this fight. I've got all the motivation in the world looking in my daughter's eyes.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:40:25] BERMAN: The actress, Sophia Vergara, is facing a lawsuit from her ex-fiance Nick Loeb, who is trying to keep her from destroying embryos they froze before their relationship ended. What is the broader impact this will have on legal battles stemming from advances in fertility? This is a really interesting subject. Bigger than any tabloid headline.

Here to discuss, Melissa Brisman, she's the reproductive lawyer here to join us, and Arthur Caplan, director of the division of medical ethics at NYU Langone Medical Center. He's also a professor of bioethics.

There is so much to discuss here. This is a deep and important subject. I want to split my first question to you.

First of all, Melissa, will Nick Loeb ever be able to get his hands on these embryos if he wants them? Art, will Sophia Vergara ever be able to destroy them if she wants to? First to you, Melissa. MELISSA BRISMAN, REPRODUCTIVE LAWYER: Well, if Nick wants to use these embryos to procreate, I can basically guarantee that that's not going to happen.

CUOMO: Because?

BRISMAN: The courts do not force people to procreate against their will unless there is a strict scrutiny passed under the Constitution. Basically what that means, there has to be an overriding, compelling interest. And since Nick can make more sperm and his reproductive options to have a biological child are still there, they are never going to let him use those embryos. If he were a cancer patient and this was his last chance at biological parenting, even then there would be no guarantee but there would be a slight chance.

BERMAN: Professor, would Sophia Vergara be able to destroy them, though, because that's a separate question?

ARTHUR L. CAPLAN, DIR., DIVISION OF MEDICAL ETHICS, NYU LANGONE MED. CTR.: It is. And I'm going to say no. And, again, I think it's clear, you need mutual agreement from both parties to destroy those embryos. So he can keep them as long as he pays the fees and wants them frozen, but he's never going to touch them for reproductive purposes.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Here's the question. When they went for this in vitro fertilization, a fertility clinic, why was it not laid out right there in writing who has the say if both signatures are need, if Sophia or Nick had the overarching say.

CAPLAN: Yes.

HARLOW: Shouldn't something like that always be mandatory when you're talking about a situation like this?

CAPLAN: Well, listen - we were talking about this earlier and I would expect in the real informed consent to be adequate. You'd say, this is what happens if we divorce or separate.

HARLOW: Sure.

CAPLAN: This is what happens if you die. Here's what happens if I die.

CUOMO: Do we know that that wasn't in place with the contracts of the clinic?

CAPLAN: We don't but -

BRISMAN: It was not in the consent form and it should have been. And the clinic should have advised them to seek legal counsel so they could have talked about this issue and made a decision. But even if they had made a decision, it doesn't mean it would have prevented this litigation because we don't know if that decision would have been upheld.

HARLOW: Melissa, you say we need more laws and there are - I bet there are a lot of folks right now saying, God, the last thing we need is government telling us more about what to do with our embryos.

BRISMAN: Sure.

HARLOW: Why - why do you make the case that more laws are needed here?

BRISMAN: Because the technology is increasing at such a fast pace that there is no guidance in the legislature. And this is because no one can agree between Republicans and Democrats and abortion and when does life start. However, then when you go to the fertility clinic, you don't know what to expect and you have people doing all sorts of things that may or may not fit within the ethical morays (ph) of the United States and -

CUOMO: What are the ethical morays of the United States?

CAPLAN: So the ethical morays of the United States are divided. You hear embryo, and here is what state legislators do, I'm out of here, I'm running away, I'm over - I don't want to talk about this. So we have no laws. We haven't determined whether a 65-year-old woman can come and have a child with some - you'll remember it's been in the news lately, she's carrying quads right now. Very dangerous to her. Very dangerous for the quadruplets. Where's the regulation saying screen her. People could be mentally ill and use technology. I know we don't like government telling us more about what to do, but if you're making babies in ways that you couldn't naturally, older people, people who are dead, you use their -

CUOMO: Well, you both just used bud words - buzz words also. Poppy, you said, you know, people will say, God, we don't need any more laws. "God." And you just said "babies."

CAPLAN: Uh-huh.

CUOMO: And that's part of this that I think the law has to figure out which way to evolve (ph) it also -

CAPLAN: One hundred percent.

CUOMO: Because a lot of people are saying it's not an embryo, it's a person.

CAPLAN: Sure.

CUOMO: Those people of conscious. Nick Loeb is supposedly, from what I understand, one of those people. So if the faith-based argument of, I don't think that you should be able to destroy this thing at all. I think that it is -

CAPLAN: Ever. Although -

CUOMO: Does that get any credence legally?

CAPLAN: Well - well, I'll let you do that one, sorry.

BRISMAN: It's - it's a tough call legally be - but, what you have to know first scientifically is, it's not a baby because a 40-year-old woman, and Sophia was around 40 when she made this embryo, and this embryo was a leftover embryo from a batch of embryos, probably has a less than 5 percent chance of actually producing a live birth.

[08:45:07] CUOMO: Wait, wait, does that mean -

BERMAN: Looking at -

CUOMO: Wait, does that mean, though, that it's not a baby or it doesn't have great potential of living a long time?

BRISMAN: It's a potential baby, but it is certainly not a baby. If someone told you --

CUOMO: Different religions will disagree on this -

BRISMAN: Absolutely.

CUOMO: The Jews think one thing, some Christians think another thing.

CAPLAN: But the courts and the law doesn't treat them as persons, so we have not made that leap yet.

(CROSSTALK)

BERMAN: So if these embryos end up frozen in perpetuity and a legal and literal limbo, they are just there. Forever.

CAPLAN: Think of this, there are 600,000 frozen embryos in the U.S. and the world today. No one is quite sure what to do with them. And clinics do destroy them quietly. You don't pay your fees and they get destroyed.

BRISMAN: Well, if someone told you you have a 5 percent chance of keeping your job, would you think that you could say that you have this job?

CUOMO: That's the question. I will let you answer it. What do you think? Tweet us, use Facebook. Thank you very much for the discussion. Appreciate it.

This young Colorado couple is seeking to build the country's first legal pot empire. How do you feel about that? We have a sneak peek at the new CNN series "HIGH PROFITS," next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAITLIN MCGUIRE, CO-OWNER, BRECKENRIDGE CANNABIS CLUB: This right here, this is the real stuff. You are not going to find this on the street. This is top quality organic bud. In 2009 when we first started, we started off very small. We were growing in a garage.

BRIAN ROGERS, CO-OWNER, BRECKENRIDGE CANNABIS CLUB: We had our own medical marijuana cards and a few patients and we mostly just grew and gave that away until there was a profitable business plan that we could go forward with and that's when we got into Breckenridge.

[08:50:07] MCGUIRE: We didn't work as hard as we've worked the last four years to just scrape by. We have much bigger plans than that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: Let's hear about those plans. That was Caitlin McGuire and Brian Rogers, the co-owners of the Breckenridge Cannabis Club. They sell recreational marijuana legally in Colorado. Their business is the subject of a new CNN original series "HIGH PROFITS."

Got Caitlin and Brian here. Nice to meet both of you. How is business?

MCGUIRE: It's booming.

ROGERS: Yes, it is booming.

CUOMO: For good reason or bad reason. What do you think?

ROGERS: For good reason. People are interested in marijuana, for sure.

CUOMO: On what level? You know what the suspicious is, that we are feeding addiction and feeding the problem, and just because people can make money off of it doesn't mean it's good. What do you think?

ROGERS: Sure. I mean, people have enjoyed vices for as long as humanity has existed, as far as I know and marijuana is a much safer substance than alcohol and less addictive than caffeine. So what we're providing is a safer alternative.

CUOMO: Why is it safer, Caitlin?

MCGUIRE: I mean, there are no rules and regulations in the black market and prohibition has not worked and it has not kept people from smoking marijuana, and so we are a regulated industry, and there are safeguards in place to make sure that we are selling a safe product.

CUOMO: You started with medical marijuana, right, and that was like the first step legally in this process that there is some really - you know, Sanjay Gupta started one side, moved to the other side, has been covering this better than anybody, many would argue, that maybe it does help. You stopped selling the medical stuff. Why?

ROGERS: Logistically, we had to pick or choose, medical or recreational marijuana. Selling recreational marijuana did not prevent our previous medical customers from being able to shop. They can still come in the store, we still honor a cheaper price point, it's a very - much lower profit margin, so that they can get the medicine they need. And starting with medical marijuana really was about, you know, everybody 21 and over for sure should have access to the choices they want for a substance they put in their body for various reasons. Medical marijuana was just everybody acknowledging that certainly marijuana's medicine and people should have the access and recreational marijuana was just the next step in that battle. CUOMO: The suspicion is Colorado is going to prove how quick this gets

out of control. 45 percent of the people buying it are from out of state. We are going to start seeing more stops with people under the influence, that this stuff is so much stronger now, hydroponic weed and all this stuff, that it's not like booze, it's really stronger, we've unleashed a danger, this is Pandora's box. Can you counter the argument?

MCGUIRE: Legalization in Colorado has been in place for almost a year and a half now and we are not seeing a whole lot of the issues that some of the naysayers were saying that we would definitely see, like under the influence drivers has really not peaked in Colorado, and for the most part I think it has been implemented very well and people seem to be staying pretty safe in Colorado.

CUOMO: Let's move on to what you do say is a concern, which is the money trade in this. It's a largely all-cash business, if not all cash, right?

ROGERS: Correct. It's all cash right now.

CUOMO: Why?

ROGERS: The banking regulations. The current White House administration has directed banks to try and do business with our industry but the banks have said change the law. The law still says we can't do it and we can't have the next administration come back on us with a heavy hammer of justice and take us down.

CUOMO: Business is booming, that's for sure, you think it's only getting bigger. How long do you think it will take before marijuana is legal in most of the country?

ROGERS: The federal ban lifting is going to be the big thing. Removing it from Schedule I, the most dangerous schedule they have to Schedule II or better, or off the schedule all together is what it's going to take. Maybe five to 20 years, depending on how this momentum keeps up.

CUOMO: And regulation will be important because not all weed is the same, right? It can be different strains, it can be made a different way, it could be cut with this, so that regulation will be key. You will accept regulation?

ROGERS: Absolutely. Regulation is key in legalizing marijuana.

CUOMO: Brian, Caitlin, we understand you were hired as muscle in this operation.

(LAUGHTER)

MCGUIRE: It's obvious?

CUOMO: It's good to have both of you here. This is a provocative subject, so thank you for doing it with CNN. The series premiere of "HIGH PROFITS" is this Sunday night at 10:00 p.m. Eastern on CNN. Watch it and decide for yourself.

[08:54:21] Are you ready for an amazing image? Look at your screen. How did somebody wind up like this? How did they get out of this situation? That is The Good Stuff.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(MUSIC PLAYING)

CUOMO: Tom Petty, "Free Falling." It's time for The Good Stuff. In today's edition, amazing images and one amazing good deed. Take a look at this. A truck suspended above an Idaho cliff, just a few links of fence holding it, the driver still inside. What happens? Motorcyclist Jason Warnock was riding below, nobody else was responding, so what did he do? Everything.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JASON WARNOCK, GOOD SAMARITAN: I was just like oh, I got to go do something and no one was doing anything so I ran up, riding about 200 yards uphill, which about killed me because I am out of shape.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: Not that out of shape. When he got there with a truck dangling by a thread, he pulled the driver out, but not before he got an unusual request.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WARNOCK: He is like, can I grab my iPod? And I am like, yes, hurry up, grab it. Give me your hand, if this thing goes, I want to have a hold of you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: Priorities, man. Jason didn't want any credit for this. He disappeared before authorities arrived. But the local paper tracked him down and we're glad that he did. Look at him there.

HARLOW: Who got those pictures?

CUOMO: Right. Someone who wasn't helping.

(LAUGHTER)

HARLOW: The other bystander who didn't run up to help. I don't like that. I don't like that at all.

CUOMO: Probably some journalist.

HARLOW: Can you believe them?

CUOMO: That's The Good Stuff indeed.

BERMAN: That is good stuff. CUOMO: You two are both good stuff, too. Thank you for being by my side.

HARLOW: My pleasure.

CUOMO: Mostly you, Poppy. Time for the "NEWSROOM" now with Deb Feyerick, in for Carol Costello. Happy Friday, Deb.

DEB FEYERICK, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Happy Friday to you, you guys. Listen, I would grab my iPad, my phone, like anything I could. The fact that he was that patient was rather remarkable.

[09:00:01] HARLOW: Yes, it is.

FEYERICK: Have a great, great weekend, everybody. "NEWSROOM" starts right now.