Gruesome Murder Plot With an ART Twist
Posted by Osagie K. Obasogie December 21, 2010
Biopolitical Times
Infertility can be stressful, both emotionally and financially. It is not uncommon for this to lead couples to separate or divorce. But murder?
That’s the accusation facing celebrity chef Juan Carlos Cruz, former host of TV shows Calorie Commando and Weighing In on the Food Network. Cruz pleaded no contest to trying to hire a homeless man to kill his wife. The motive? Infertility, and the couple’s lack of success with various treatments. From the Los Angeles Times:
Cruz told detectives when he was arrested that his wife had been "going through a midlife crisis" after unsuccessfully trying fertility treatments for over a decade, according to the report. The couple were more than $200,000 in debt and Cruz believed killing his wife was "a 'merciful' way to end her suffering."Thankfully, the person solicited by Cruz to carry out this task talked to investigators, who arrested Cruz before his wife was harmed. Perhaps there is more to the story than is currently being reported. But this seems to be, at least in part, a sad tale on infertility’s stresses and the unreasonable expectations tied to assisted reproduction.
Cruz, who told detectives he had considered taking his own life, said that Mother's Day was especially painful for his wife and that he could not bear seeing her. When investigators asked Cruz when he began looking for someone to kill his wife, he told them that he had been looking for several weeks and wanted the task completed by Mother's Day.