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with Elsa here," he said, "but I want John to hear me too. A tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy is not a terribly complex surgical procedure in children of this age, but it's not entirely innocuous either, and problems can turn up under the best of circumstances. To be perfectly honest, I have to warn you that ideally this surgery should be done in a Health Control Hospital under the most choice conditions. We could use a safer anesthesia there, we'd have better control of any surgical problems that might develop, and the children could remain under Hospital observation until they were fully recovered from anesthesia and through the initial danger of bleeding. Doing the surgery here, I can't offer you the best, most ideal circumstances. I don't anticipate trouble, and I'll do everything I can to avoid it, but there is some degree of additional risk that you should know about."
    "Doctor, we can't bring ourselves to take them to the Hospital," the woman said, "they're both over five years old, and they've both been treated more than three times in the Clinic. That means that they'd both have to be sterilized before they could qualify for any legal care at all. And for something like this we just can't let them be mutilated like that."
    "Well, I know how you feel. I disagree with the Eugenic Control laws, too, or I wouldn't be here. But the laws are the laws, and you have to make the decision; I can't make it for you. Just for the record, the surgery required for legal qualification for Health Control care can't exactly be called mutilation. A vasectomy for a boy is a simple Clinic procedure that doesn't even involve hospitalization. For the girl, a tubal ligation is a little more complex, and might require an overnight stay in the Hospital, but nothing more."
    "But the results are always the same, aren't they? Complete, permanent—"
    "That's right. That's what the Eugenics Control laws are all about: the prior sterilization of any individual who requires health care services for any reason—excluding children under five, of course, except in cases of known hereditary disease."
    "And that's why you're doing the surgery here instead of in a Hospital," John Merriman said heavily. "As far as we're concerned, sterilization of these children is out of the question. Until those laws are changed, we'll go underground. We understand the extra risk, Doctor, and we've both decided we have to take it."
    Doc nodded. "Then we understand each other. YouH have to sign releases, of course, to cover me and my assistants in the event of unexpected trouble." He withdrew two printed forms from his bag and handed them to Merriman. "I'm sorry this is necessary, but it really is," he added gently. "Don't be afraid that I'm going to be anything but scrupulously careful—I'll do the best job I know how. But if you decided for some reason to report me to Health Control authorities, you would only be vulnerable for misdemeanor charges for accepting illegal medical services, whereas I could lose my practice license and go to prison for years. I have to have the protection of a release."
    "Yes, we understand." Merriman signed the releases, and handed them to his wife for signature. "Then there's also the matter of the fee," he added. "You told Elsa seven hundred?"
    "That's right—seven hundred in markers, or nine hundred on your credit card. The extra is to cover the cost and risk and trouble of feeding the credit card funds into the electronic accounting system without raising questions as to its source."
    "Well, we have it in markers."
    "Good, we much prefer it that way. Now, then, the little girl is the worrier of the two of them, so I think I'll take her first. You two might keep the boy company in the other room; I'll need my helpers with me."
    Throughout this exchange, which he had heard a thousand times before, Billy Gimp had been setting up the kitchen area as an impromptu operating room. After releasing the binder on the first of the surgical