Return to Transcripts main page

NEW DAY

Freezing Eggs for Future Use; "Dick Cavett's Vietnam" Documentary Airing on PBS Looks Back at Era. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired April 23, 2015 - 08:30   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:32:04] MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: All right, here we go with the five things you need to know for your new day.

At number one, more protests are planned for Baltimore today following the death of Freddie Gray after his arrest. Demonstrations got intense Tuesday. Protesters clashing a bit with police.

At long last, the full Senate is set to vote today on Loretta Lynch's nomination for attorney general. She is slated to become the first black woman to lead the Justice Department.

Former CIA Director David Petraeus being sentenced today for leaking classified information to his biographer turned mistress. He could face one year in prison or two years' probation under a plea deal.

A federal judge giving final approval to a concussion lawsuit settlement between the NFL and thousands of retired players. It provides as much as $5 million for players with the most serious conditions related to repeated head trauma.

The European Union holding an emergency meeting, trying to stem the tide of refugees flooding into Italy from the Middle East and Africa. Italian officials say they are simply overwhelmed.

For more on the five things to know, be sure to visit newdaycnn.com for the latest. And if you would like to learn more about the migrant crisis and how can you help, please visit cnn.com/impact.

Alisyn, I hear you giggling over there. What's going on in the greenroom?

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Sanjay's just walking into my tease -

PEREIRA: Oh, OK.

CAMEROTA: And it's the perfect timing because I'm talking about a medical breakthrough.

PEREIRA: He's also one of my boyfriends.

CAMEROTA: Exactly. It promises to be a game changer.

SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: My medical breakthrough? Are we talking about -

CAMEROTA: Your medical breakthrough. Sophie B. Hawkins is a medical breakthrough.

SOPHIE B. HAWKINS, SINGER-SONGWRITER: Hi.

CAMEROTA: How are you? Nice to see you.

Well, let's talk about something that can change the game for women who want to have children later in life, like Sophie who's 50.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:37:56] CAMEROTA: Welcome back to NEW DAY.

Chances are that you or someone you know has struggled to get pregnant. One out of every eight couples in the U.S. suffers from infertility. NEW DAY has been focusing on this topic for National Infertility Awareness Week and today we want to talk about a medical breakthrough that promises to be a game changer for women. We have two special guests here to talk about it, CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta and singer/songwriter, Sophia B. Hawkins, who is pregnant with her second child at 50 years old.

It's great to have you guys.

SOPHIE B. HAWKINS, SINGER/SONGWRITER: Thank you so much.

CAMEROTA: Sophie, how did this happen?

HAWKINS: How?

CAMEROTA: Yes.

HAWKINS: Well, technically, I froze my embryos when I was 31 and the first when I was 44 I had Dashiell. And then at 50 I said, I have to have another child for Dashiell to have a sibling and to build my family and - so I just put it in. They thawed it and put it in.

CAMEROTA: So you, at 31 years old -

HAWKINS: Yes.

CAMEROTA: Had the foresight to realize that you weren't ready in your life -

HAWKINS: Right.

CAMEROTA: To have a family.

HAWKINS: Most women aren't nowadays because your career is so demanding that you have to - basically feeding your embryos to me is like having a savings account. When you're 20, you have no idea when you might need it. And you don't think you really will need it. You think you're going to be young and fit forever. Well, I am young and fit in my mind, but the eggs, you know, they're not young and fit. DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Yes.

HAWKINS: So it was like having a savings account in case and, boy, did I need it.

CAMEROTA: And what you did - well, you have a son Dash, as you say, who's six.

HAWKINS: Yes.

CAMEROTA: And what you did was you took your egg and donor sperm and created an embryo and your froze it.

HAWKINS: Yes. Yes.

CAMEROTA: And, Sanjay, that technology has been around for a while. A frozen embryo that you can use later. What's new and possibly game changing for women who may want to have children later in life, is that now you can freeze your eggs.

HAWKINS: Wow!

GUPTA: Just the eggs.

HAWKINS: Wow!

GUPTA: So unfertilized eggs. And this is relatively new over the last 15, 20 years, but it's gotten a lot better in terms of how well we can freeze eggs, how well we can thaw eggs. This may be more than you want to know, but basically the challenge was that in eggs there's a lot of fluid that's within the egg. With an embryo, there's less fluid. If there's more fluid, it's harder to freeze because that fluid can crystalize. So what they've really sort of perfected over the last several years is a sort of - almost a flash freezing process that prevents that crystallization from occurring, so you can freeze and thaw much more easily.

[08:40:20] CAMEROTA: Because, I mean, to your point, the technology was around but it wasn't that effective. Only recently, I mean in the past, I think, correct me if I'm wrong, couple of years, have they figured out how to - that the eggs will still be viable 10 years or 15 years later when you say you're ready.

GUPTA: Now they're talking about success rates of 70 to 75 percent. Which, you know, fertility for a woman in her 20s, just the natural way, is still, you know, 20 to 25 percent.

HAWKINS: Right.

GUPTA: So this is pretty high.

CAMEROTA: Each cycle. I mean each month, I should say.

GUPTA: Each cycle. Each month. Each month, yes.

CAMEROTA: Right. Right. Is this - is there any danger of freezing eggs to women?

GUPTA: Well, so you have an egg that at that time, whatever age the woman at that time, you're sort of suspending any potential chromosomal problems or genetic problems that may develop. The biggest - the biggest things is, it's a process, certainly. It's a two and a half week process. There's anesthetics involved and things like that, medications you have to take, but really not much other than that. It's not easy. It's expensive. But you have pretty good payoffs now in terms of success rates.

CAMEROTA: Right. Absolutely.

So, Sophie, what do you -

HAWKINS: Who wouldn't do that?

CAMEROTA: Well - well, I mean, it makes - it's an insurance account, as you just aid.

HAWKINS: I would absolutely have done the egg. And that was one - the hardest part was picking the sperm donor because I - I was in a relationship. I didn't necessarily want somebody else.

CAMEROTA: Absolutely.

HAWKINS: But, anyways, so go on.

CAMEROTA: Well, so, what do you say to people who are not quite there yet, how haven't accepted this 50 year old -

HAWKINS: Well, you've got to grow up and accept it. It's just like I said, your - you want to go to college, you have to have a savings account. You want to - you know you're going to get old, get, you know, long-time care insurance. Freeze your eggs, gosh darn it.

CAMEROTA: And what about people who say that just because you can have a baby at 50, doesn't mean that you should.

HAWKINS: So somebody else might need it, your egg, then you can donate your egg to someone you really love. Maybe your sister, your best friend or someone you don't even know is dying to have a child. There's nothing better for a woman - and I'm sorry to say this - men are wonderful, but having a child is the best thing in the world. It makes us who we are. I'm sorry to be so old-fashioned, but it's the greatest thing in my life.

CAMEROTA: That's so nice to hear.

How are you feeling?

HAWKINS: Great. I am feelings amazing. I work out with Jillian Michaels every day. No, true, I - my son, I don't have a nanny, he's in a great public school. I have a community. I have a family. Everything's wonderful. I'm performing at Rockwood (ph) Musical April 30th.

CAMEROTA: That's great. You're such a great performer.

HAWKINS: (INAUDIBLE) new record.

CAMEROTA: You are still rocking out.

GUPTA: Seven and a half months pregnant and you're going to be performing. Fantastic.

HAWKINS: Yes. Yes, the fat lady is going to be singing.

CAMEROTA: Right. I mean, look, Sanjay, what's so interesting, of course, is this is a sexist conversation that we're having anyway because people don't say to 50 year old men, what are you thinking? Why would you have a child?

HAWKINS: Well, their sperm lasts forever.

GUPTA: What's that?

HAWKINS: Your sperm lasts forever in your body.

GUPTA: And there's changes, you know. I mean the concern is, is older sperm, older eggs, they're going to have an accumulation of genetic abnormalities. So younger eggs, younger sperm are probably going to have more viability. But the idea of storing eggs just because, it's an interesting question. I mean we used to do it for embryos for patients with cancer.

CAMEROTA: Absolutely.

HAWKINS: Wow!

GUPTA: Your concern is that there would be fertility problems.

CAMEROTA: And it has been wonderful for patients who have cancer.

GUPTA: And there was a - yes, a real reason they may not be able to have fertility, they may lose their fertility as a result of their treatments. But this is a whole - whole new discussion and, you know, I've talked to people yesterday in preparation for this segment and even within the obstetrics community, they're sort of split. Most of them are still cautious. You know, don't necessarily do this unless you feel that you need to.

HAWKINS: Wow!

CAMEROTA: Why? What's the - what's the drawback?

GUPTA: Well, you know, it's - you know, it's - there is still a - like in most medicine, unless there is a certain procedure necessary, you don't want to do it. There are risks, obviously, with the procedure. There are costs. There are things that could go wrong. Will it actually give people a sense of confidence that they don't need to go ahead and get pregnant and just wait as long as they want? They may want to do that. That may be their life choice. But does this make it just sort of a natural path? CAMEROTA: Yes. Understood. I mean, yes -

HAWKINS: Right.

CAMEROTA: It's a decision that you have to make -

HAWKINS: Right.

CAMEROTA: But it certainly would be a cultural shift.

Well, Sanjay, great to see you.

GUPTA: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: Thanks for explaining that.

You and I will be having a live Facebook chat about all of this and all sorts of infertility questions later on.

GUPTA: A lot of questions, yes.

CAMEROTA: And, Sophie, great to see you.

HAWKINS: Thank you so much.

CAMEROTA: When's your baby due?

HAWKINS: July 6th actually.

CAMEROTA: And Dash is really excited?

HAWKINS: Very. He's named her bubble gum and he talks to her all the time.

CAMEROTA: That's great. Well, thanks so much for sharing your personal -

HAWKINS: He's done with me and he's on to the next.

CAMEROTA: That's so great that he gets a little baby sister.

HAWKINS: Yes.

CAMEROTA: Thanks so much for all of that.

HAWKINS: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: So what's your take on this topic? You can tweet us using the #newdaycnn. And also, as I just mentioned, at 9:00 a.m., Sanjay and I will doing a chart, a live chat, on CNN's Facebook page about infertility. You can send us your questions and comments. You can tweet us using the #infertilitystories.

Michaela.

[08:44:55] PEREIRA: (INAUDIBLE). Boy, our greenroom is hopping. Look who I found. Alisyn, Dick Cavett is here. Americans turn to you for years, especially during the Vietnam War, and you have a very special documentary coming up that we're going to talk about through the lens of your former talk show. We have an anniversary, 40 years. It's hard to believe, isn't it?

DICK CAVETT, PBS SPECIAL, "DICK CAVETT'S VIETNAM": Wow. Don't make either of us feel old.

PEREIRA: I know. Either of us. I like the way he joined me in on that. It's so true. Dick will talk to us just in a moment.

CAVETT: See you there.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAVETT (voice-over): The Vietnam War was raging is southeast Asia and the reaction at home was intense.

While I set out to do an entertaining talk show, you could not keep Vietnam out of the conversation.

CAVETT (on camera): Bob Hope entertained the boys in Vietnam this Christmas. What did you do, Mr. Allen?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This past Christmas? I tried to entertain our deserters in Canada.

(AUDIENCE LAUGHTER)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PEREIRA: It was the Vietnam War and during one of the most divisive times in our nation's history, Americans turned to Dick Cavett. His show offered an outlet for spirited debate from all sides of the spectrum. Next week, hard to believe it, marks the 40th anniversary of the end of America's presence in Vietnam.

A new PBS documentary called "Dick Cavett's Vietnam" is looking at the conflict through the lens of his talk show.

Mr. Dick Cavett is here with us. I was just thinking, Dick, we need a show like this, especially given all of the things that are going on in the world, all the conflicts that are going on around in the world.

CAVETT: You might two or three shows to cover all the conflicts now owing to our ability to get into a new war every few months. I have been immersed in Watergate, when I did the Watergate special, and now I've been immersed in Vietnam. Looking at all of these tapes, I had no idea I had so much stuff on it. You couldn't do anything without it. Not just having a guest on about it, but Tony Randall, Warren Beatty, Groucho Marx, the subject would come up and you could not stay away from it. It's a mixed blessing being back in it, how much we repressed and how much we may have forgotten, and at the end of the piece I've written about I thought how many Americans know who won the Vietnam War? We didn't.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: How many know it was not a war? Looking back on it, what struck you as things that you didn't remember the same way, or what influenced you at the time versus the way you feel now?

CAVETT: One thing I realized I had forgot was the detail that Lieutenant Calley, who massacred a whole lot of civilians, got many convictions, and President Nixon reduced his life sentence to house arrest, things like that you tend to forget because they are such unpleasant facts. And seeing a general say, Wesley Clark saying, I was for the war, I was in the war, and then I began to think about it, (INAUDIBLE) have we learned anything from that miserable experience?

CAMEROTA: There in lies the question. When you go back and look at all this archival footage, it strikes me just from watching the excerpts of your special how we are having the exact same conversations today about Iraq and Afghanistan.

CAVETT: Rings an unfortunate bell that sounds the words Afghanistan and Iraq and what all else?

PEREIRA: Yemen, Syria, I mean, add all of those countries.

CUOMO: Isn't that the necessary consequence of not being an occupying force, that if you go into a place with military action but you don't plan on owning it and converting it into something, aren't you going to find yourselves in these kind of never-ending situations?

CAVETT: I guess so. Inevitability seems to be the fitting, otherwise we wouldn't still be doing it. One World War II veteran said to me, this war, my god, what a half-assed way they're doing it. Who is running this thing, the Marx brothers? And then we had, of course, the (INAUDIBLE) general, Westmoreland, and it's all these things that we have kind of forgotten.

PEREIRA: And now secretary of state, John Kerry, who was fresh back from -- it was really interesting to look at where he is now and look back at the young man who had just returned.

CAVETT: His hair was black when he was on the show.

PEREIRA: Yes, it was.

CAVETT: He shocked me on that appearance by saying, by the way, did you hear Bob Hope was booed at (INAUDIBLE)? The soldiers, whom Bob had loved all his life and entertained brilliantly, had gotten very profitable TV specials on them, didn't get it. The troops had sickened the war and they had sickened of him, whom they had loved, because he was repeated - constant support of the war beyond the -- he didn't get it, he stayed on too long.

CAMEROTA: It was interesting to see, as you just mentioned, all the cultural figures in your special talking about the war. There were comedians, there were actors, it really sort of crossed the spectrum and now you don't hear as many people talking about Iraq and Afghanistan. CAVETT: Right, it isn't inevitable that it's going to come up on every

show, but it virtually was inevitable then.

CUOMO: Why?

CAVETT: Because you had just come from sickening headlines that day or you had a son over there. I did not get a very good answer from Henry Kissinger when I said, what would you say to a man says this war, what was worth it for my son's life? And I wish I had said to his fuzzy answer, his life was wasted, you know it was, and people like you should have known better, but Henry has a slightly disconcerting lack of seeming concern for the human cost.

PEREIRA: Talking about you doing this show -

CAVETT: Am I being too funny here?

PEREIRA: No, you are amazing, and that's what I wanted to ask you about, because in this time, you always bring such warmth and humor and human aspect to the show you do. I can imagine it was a struggle during this time to keep your own opinions to yourself?

CAVETT: It was and I got a lot of hate mail, and when I had Jane Fonda on, I got, "You little sawed off faggot communist trimp (ph)," and a note from Waco, Texas, and I wrote back, "I'm not sawed off." But yeah, I got a lot of --

CUOMO: That was from family.

CAVETT: By the way, you were brilliant with those kids.

CAMEROTA: Wasn't he?

CAVETT: You were the aired Art Linkletter.

(CROSSTALK)

PEREIRA: We want you to make sure to tune in. This is going to be television definitely worth seeing, "Dick Cavett's Vietnam," it airs Monday, April 27th on PBS. Check your local listings, find out what time it's going to air where you live.

CAVETT: That's almost tomorrow, isn't it?

PEREIRA: I know. I love when you come to visit us.

[08:55:02] CAVETT: Thank you.

PEREIRA: And I love holding your hand.

CAVETT: I have a very sad story for you about the war if you have me back.

PEREIRA: Okay. I would like.

CAVETT: Five minutes from now. CUOMO: We have a double dose of The Good Stuff for you. A homeless man

is now richer than his wildest dreams, but it's how he got that way that really tells you the power of The Good Stuff. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: It's time for The Good Stuff, and proof that people do care. A determined social worker and a cop team up to make this unbelievable discovery. Here's the story. John Hellinski (ph) is homeless for years, an identity theft left him nameless as well, so he shows up to a Florida shelter, there is a problem, he has no I.D. So the social worker, Charles Inman (ph) and Officer Dan McDonald don't just kick him out, which often happens. Instead, they team up and help to get John's documents back. It took them weeks and a lot of it on their own time, but they got it back, and guess what else they discovered? A long lost bank account. The account has been collecting Social Security for years, enough money in it so that John Hellinski is now living on his own.

PEREIRA: Are you kidding me? This is the best story ever.

CAMEROTA: I agree.

PEREIRA: And those two people saw him as a human, instead of just another statistic, another homeless person. That's fantastic.

CUOMO: And went out of their way, although they don't believe that because they believe for cops it's protect and serve, for the social worker, it's make your life better if that can.

[09:00:05] CAMEROTA: That is a great, great story.

PEREIRA: That's a good on,e.

CAMEROTA: Thanks, Chris.