Internet adoption is straight out of my book

January 26, 2001

FOR the Guardian’s diary reporter, the coincidence seemed a little too much. My internet novel was launching in a blaze of publicity and, days later, the plot appeared to come true.

The story, Nobody’s Child, follows a Reality TV gameshow where childless couples compete to win a baby.

My research had proved that anyone with a few thousand dollars of credit on their cards could order a baby over the internet — virtually downloading it, the way you might a piece of software.

Within days of the launch, newspapers stumbled across the shocking saga of Californian twins Belinda and Kimberley Kilshaw. These six-month-old girls, who are in the care of Flintshire social services as I write,were sold by a broker to a US couple for $6,000, then removed from that family by their birth mother and resold to a British husband and wife. And when the diarist saw my press release, suspicions started to fly that I had been tipped off, perhaps by the FBI, who are taking a close interest in the drama.

Jewish Telegraph readers will know that life, in this case, is taking a lead from fiction. I announced my plans to publish Nobody’s Child exclusively on the internet, a chapter a week for 50 weeks, last month.

The eruption of the adoption scandal at the precise moment that I chose to launch the book is proof to me of the unsettling power of synchronicity. My story has not come a day too soon.

When I set out to patent the process described in the story — a TV-internet mechanism which allows viewers to vote on which couple should get the baby — I hoped that a Reality TV gameshow with a human child as first child could not happen for years. Now it is happening before my eyes.

Alan and Judith Kilshaw are not good TV performers. The woman appears too eager to hammer home her point of view, the man too meek to stop her.

A parent must be bold in defence, but these people seemed to strut their defiance in front of any camera that rolled.

They appeared to be unmoved by the pleas of the first couple, Richard and Vickie Allen, whose other child was said to be bewildered and missing his sisters.

They were accused of ruthlessness in their dealings with the birth mother and the broker.

I do not, of course, know these people. But it feels like I do, because I have seen a lot of footage, much of it played over and over again. It feels as if half the country know them like bad neighbours.

If the Kilshaws had been younger, better looking, childless, more vulnerable, less ready for a fight — they would have stood a better chance of winning the media battle.

Because that is what will settle this custody case: media performance.

Judith Kilshaw’s admission on Sunday that she was prepared to use black magic to win back the twins will be proof to many that this is no fit mother. Kilshaw admitted casting black magic spells, such as crouching over a baby’s grave in a sick fertility ritual. She said she was willing to ruin political careers, family lives and businesses with her dark powers if the babies were not returned to her.

I believe that if she attempts black magic, she is insane. She will destroy herself and her family — the havoc that has already descended upon her is proof of that.

All witches, good or evil, know they are constrained by the Threefold Law of Return. In the Sixties, hippies used to call it ‘bad karma’ — put simply, it means that any evil wishes you release into the world will find their way back to you, three times stronger. The magic books say: ‘Whatever energy thou doth send forth, so shall it return unto thee, threefold.’

A witch might try to inflict cancer upon an enemy — the only thing about the spell which is certain to work is the Threefold Law of Return. Those cancer wishes will come back in a fatal dose.

It’s hard to imagine a bleaker beginning to life for these two babies. Rejected by their mother and sold to one couple —taken from their home and sold again — flown halfway across the world and paraded before endless cameras — taken again, into care. Welcome to the 21st century family: lawyers, reporters and social workers. This reminds me so forcefully of the value of the extended family which is the Jewish archetype.

If only the twin’s birth mother had been Jewish, she might have had aunts, sisters, grandparents or nieces who would have helped her care for the babies. There is nothing new in bearing illegitimate children. There is nothing new in adoption — it can be a wonderful way of spreading love, and it is one of humanity’s highest forms of altruism.

What is new is the bloodthirsty frenzy that erupted when the Kilshaws took their story to the press. Without a family to protect them, the babies were at the mercy of these raptors.

Jewish lore, of course, gives a simple answer to the question vexing social workers and lawyers: What is to become of the children?

When King Solomon was asked to judge which of two women should take custody of a child, he proposed cutting the baby in half and giving a piece to each woman. One ‘mother’ assented. The other recoiled in horror, and it was this woman who won the judgment.

Judith Kilshaw, with her vicious declarations that she would wreak occult vengeance on all who had thwarted her, seems the perfect target for Solomon’s contempt.

Read Uri Geller’s stunning online novel, Nobody’s Child, at www.uristory.com
Uri Geller’s ParaScience Pack is published by Van Der Meer at £30. To hear an inspirational message from Uri, call 0906 601 0171. Call costs 60p per minute.
Visit him at www.uri-geller.com and e-mail him at [email protected]