‘Snowflake’ Parents Speak on Capitol Hill

CWA ^ | 6/1/05

[ZGuy]

Testimonies of Snowflake Parents

Capitol Hill Press Conference

May 24, 2005

Nightlight Christian Adoptions Executive Director Ron Stoddart:
Nightlight Christian Adoptions is a licensed adoption agency. We’ve been around for over 45 years. We started doing domestic adoptions. In the early ’90s we added international adoption. In 1997 we started getting involved in embryo adoption. Why? Because the genetic families with their embryos in frozen orphanages wanted a better choice. The choice that they were given to place their embryos with other families involved donating them anonymously. Well that might be ok for the heart or the kidney of a relative but when you’re talking about an embryo it’s important to know: How many of those embryos survive the thawing? How many of those embryos resulted in a baby being born? Where does that baby live? Is it a boy or a girl? It’s important just as it is in adoption to recognize the emotional and social issues in adoption as well as the medical issues. So Nightlight began the Snowflake Program offering genetic families the ability to select adopting parents to have the embryos implanted in the adopting mother and have the adopting mother give birth to her adopted child: truly a new generation of adopting mothers.

So far we’ve had 81 babies born. We have 15 more that are on the way. But numbers are not nearly as important as the babies involved. For which one of these children would you have decided: We don’t need them? We can sacrifice them for research.

As Congressman [Dave] Weldon [R-Florida] said, “It would be a closer debate if there was really proof that the embryonic stem cells could do something that the adult stem cell and the cord-blood stem cell could not do, but that proof isn’t there.” The hysteria over ‘get money’ to do research on embryos has become overwhelming. I think most of you remember the story about the emperor with the new suit of clothes riding through town and everyone saying how beautiful his new robes are. How many children will we have to sacrifice before we admit that the emperor of embryonic stem-cell research has no clothes? We hope that as you listen to the families today talk about their experience, their emotions, that you will look to the truth and the truth is these are not embryos that are going to be discarded anyway. These are embryos full of potential to be the children that are standing before you today.

Thank you.

Now we have Betty Burnett, a genetic mom, to talk about the responsibility of parents. Betty Burnett joins us from Fountain Valley, California. She and her husband Bob donated their embryos for adoption. Welcome.

Betty Burnett:
Thank you very much. We want to thank Congressmen Joe Pitts [R-Pennsylvania], Mike Pence [R-Indiana] and Dave Weldon who invited us here today. We are the Burnett family and our five-year old twins are with us here. As I am speaking with you, I am going to show you several photos. These include our children as embryos and these are their very first baby pictures and also a picture from the womb. These are their pictures at birth and 7 months old. [This is] my daughter Grace today.

We are a family that has experienced infertility. We used several in vitro fertilization procedures or IVF to have our children. The acronyms IVF or ART [advanced reproductive technology] sound simple, but they do not describe the journey a couple goes through when they cannot have a child. It is an experience that binds time, an intense emotional time, confusing medical terminology and very expensive treatment options.

It is our heart’s desire in being here to encourage couples who are going through infertility. We know first hand how very challenging it is and how weary you can become. We reach out to support you in seeking solutions that will be right for your family. You cannot predict the results of the steps you will take, but with time and commitment, your answers will come. The joy, love and caring experience with children is beautiful beyond words and worth all that you are going through.

One possible solution is embryo adoption or becoming a family for donated embryos. As a genetic family we placed all of our embryos for adoption through Nightlight Christian Adoption’s Snowflake Program. I know that right now out there is a mom or dad who is hearing my words whose heart is in their throat with tears welling in their eyes over their concerns for their own frozen embryos. We want you to know that our decision was thoughtfully and very carefully made. It was also heart-wrenching. It brought me personally to know the heroism of the precious women who are birth moms and place their babies in the loving arms of others who will become the baby’s mother.

Our choice was also hard, but we learned to love outside of our comfort zone. We made a gift of something most precious to us and we were emboldened by appreciation for the life exhibited in the smiles of our own sweet babies. Embryo donation was a solution for our children in their suspended state and also an opportunity for a couple like us who love God and each other and want most to share that love in raising their family. Today we are at peace with our decision. We want to share a message of hope with you.

In the next few days Congress will consider legislation based on the notion that IVF or ART embryos are discardable. I would ask the family of infertility and IVF and ART couples to let their representatives in Congress know their feelings on this subject. As for us, the words extra, unwanted, discardable--as these words apply to embryos--they reflect a lack of thoughtfulness on the subject. Medical treatments aimed at infertility are about producing life and not sacrificing it. IVF and ART families keep their frozen embryos precisely because they are so very wanted. Thank you!

(Applause)

Ron Stoddart:
I’d like to introduce Tim and Sarah Cochran from nearby Annapolis. They are in the Snowflake Program, just beginning as waiting parents and I’d like them to tell you a little bit about why they chose this way to build their family.

Sarah Cochran:
I'm Sarah Cochran and my husband Tim and I are new members to the Snowflake family. We are currently in the process of completing our home study and preparation for adoption through the Snowflake frozen-embryo adoption program. We have chosen to participate in frozen-embryo adoption because it is more in line with our ethical moral and religious beliefs. It acknowledges that the worth and value of each and every human life is not dependent on its appearance…. (Inaudible)... simply because it is a human being. I don’t believe there is one human being so small that it doesn’t matter.

An embryo is not just a collection of cells. An embryo is a human being with its own unique DNA, DNA that is unlike any person who has ever lived or ever will live. Each one is uniquely special and by destroying that embryo through unproven experimental stem-cell research, we are killing a uniquely special individual.

By allowing embryonic stem-cell research we could unwittingly and unknowingly be killing the doctor who could find a cure for cancer, the first African American president. We’re killing our children. Each embryo no matter how small is an American who has the constitutional right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and if we murder them through experimentation we are denying them rights that we wouldn’t deny a serial killer.

Some say that embryos are not human beings, well then, what are they? They’re not animals. They are not some other species. And if an embryo is not a human being but an infant is, we are left to arbitrarily define at what stage of prenatal development those embryos are deserving of their status as human beings and grant them their rights and our protection.

There are thousands, if not tens of thousands, of couples unable to have children of their own and frozen embryo adoption would allow them to bond with their child prior to birth, as well as nurse their child after delivery. I absolutely do not want federal funding used to experiment on human beings in their earliest stage of development. It is vitally important that we as a nation stand on moral principle and not be swayed from our fundamental belief in human rights, despite what other countries are doing and recognize the stand our country takes in contrast with the international community. This is what ethical decisions are all about. I ask each member of Congress to protect the rights--the very lives--of the smallest of human beings and vote against embryonic stem-cell research.

I also ask that each and every American contact the members of Congress to insist that they protect these defenseless Americans from certain destruction. Thank you.

(Applause)

Ron Stoddart:
I’d like to introduce now Janet and Kevin Mason. Janet and Kevin made the long drive here from Ohio to share with you this morning with their twin Snowflake sons Caleb and Jordan. Janet is a pediatrician and Kevin is a medical researcher. We’d like to give you their perspective.

Janet Mason:
Actually I’m a family practice physician. We’re from Columbus, Ohio. I’ve attended the deliveries of babies. I’ve delivered babies myself and I’ve even been a coach for friends for the delivery of a newborn, but for me this was more a journey of infertility. After trying to conceive for six years, we had five failed IVF attempts one--the fourth out of five--ended in a miscarriage. When we heard about the Snowflake embryo adoption it became a cornerstone in our life. I’ve described infertility as a very deep sadness. Over the years I even prayed that God would take away my desire for children or even to have babies if that wasn’t His will because it was so painful. Despite that the desire grew stronger. I wanted children even more.

It’s not a coincidence that while we were listening to a Focus on the Family broadcast about embryo adoption our placing parents were also listening while they were trying to consider what steps they would take for their 16 embryos that were stored. We were contemplating embryo adoption. We along with the placing parents immediately knew it was a perfect match, a match made by God. We believe that the God who made these embryos actually had us in mind as the parents for the babies. We adopted all 16 embryos that they had and out of the first three embryos two implanted. They are our little miracles. Jordan is my night owl, Caleb is my morning glory. They were the same way in the womb and Jordan was active at night, Caleb was active in the morning, he woke me up. They are the light of our lives. They are the light of their grandparents’ lives, too.

Adoption of embryos was not only the promise of pregnancy fulfilled, but of the blessing of being part of this incredible journey. Amazingly enough, as thankful as we are to our placing parents that we were able to adopt these babies, they consider us a blessing.

When you consider that a frozen embryo in an IVF clinic, when you consider that it’s not just an egg, it’s not just one half of a couple’s genetics, its actually the earliest form of a human being’s life in their development. By definition an embryo is the result of a union between a female egg and a male sperm. The embryo starts as a fertilized egg and through numerous cell divisions progresses to the multi-cellular organism that we all are today. [When] my three embryos [were] transferred, one was at two-cell stage, one at four- and one at six-cell stage. They were even earlier than what they are using in embryonic stem-cell research. Thirty-seven weeks later Caleb, 7 pounds and 5 ounces, and Jordan, 6 pounds 6 ounces, were born.

Embryonic stem-cell research uses much more advanced embryos. They’ve reached the blastocyst stage and [scientists] use the inner cell mass of that blastocyst for the stem cells. In doing this, they’re ending a life for the advancement of an unproven and questionable science, despite alternatives that already exist. … Adult stem-cell research and cord blood use: Many do not realize the significant alternatives to the destruction of embryos. Embryos in IVF clinics are not just left over. They’re not to be thrown away.

As you can see, it’s a blessing to everyone involved. Federal funding for adult stem-cell research makes sense morally and ethically. But the destruction of humans at their most vulnerable and early stage of life does not make sense.

Thank you.

Kevin Mason:
Good morning, my name is Kevin Mason. I’m a scientist at the Columbus Children’s Research Institute in Columbus, Ohio. I’m also the father of two beautiful Snowflakes, Caleb and Jordan. The argument before Congress this week, put forward by Rep. Mike Castle, is to allow taxpayer dollars to fund the destruction of human embryos for the purpose of extracting the embryonic stem cells for saline development and therapeutic cloning and opening the door for reproductive cloning.

Rep. Castle would disagree with my use of the words “destruction of human embryos” because he has stated that the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2005 would not allow the destruction of embryos but instead allow the extraction of stem cells from left-over embryos from IVF treatments. The extraction of stem cells from any embryo whether created by the union of an egg and sperm, by transfer of DNA from another cell or those referred to as “leftover from IVF treatment” will, in fact, result in the destruction and death of that embryo.

Likewise an editorial in The Washington Post this very weekend described the embryo as a small cluster of cells not yet even a fetus that will never grow into a baby because they will never be implanted into a woman’s uterus. I would agree with this statement had the author been referring to the extracted embryonic stem cells, because indeed these stem cells will never grow into a baby because the embryo that once contained these cells had been destroyed. The embryo the author refers to however would in fact be given the chance to develop into a baby had it been transferred into a woman’s uterus, as evidenced by all these children you see behind me here today.

What we are witnessing is the dehumanization of the embryo to deal with the moral negligence of taking one life for the hope and dream of future disease treatments. Science is not and should never be based on the hopes and dreams of what we want to achieve, but an understanding of what is and how we can use this information to advance our treatments. Federal funding of responsible research should always be based upon the likelihood of achieving the aims of the scientific proposal based upon the preliminary data that shapes the question that is being asked.

A real alternative exists to stem-cell research in the use of adult and umbilical-cord-blood stem cells treatments for spinal cord injuries, heart tissue regeneration, corneal reconstruction, autoimmune disease treatments for diabetes, lupus, Crohn’s disease, and multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, anemias, cancers and immune deficiencies: real treatments for real people in real clinical trials. The hope of embryonic stem-cell research remains just that: hope; no clinical trials and only modest results on animals. The literature clearly supports funding for adult and umbilical-cord-blood stem cells. Taking the life of a human for the hope of treatment is wrong.

Human embryos are not leftovers, an un-valuable cluster of cells. Human embryos are human and have value because of this. We must protect this value. These embryos were human at the moment of conception, containing all genetic material that self-corrected their development. Embryos were human when they divided to the two-, four- and eight- cell stage. These embryos were human when they were frozen in liquid nitrogen for six years. These embryos were human when they were thawed and transferred to their mother’s womb. These embryos were human when they became blastocysts and were implanted in the uterus. These embryos were human as they continued to develop over six, 12, 24 and 36 weeks. And these babies were human when they were born. These embryos and developed babies are now 11 months old and are named Caleb Joshua Mason and Jordan Michael Mason, the joy of this father’s life.

(Applause)

Ron Stoddart:
Thank you, and our last speaker this morning is going to be Sharon and Leslie Tesdall Snowflake parents from Tuston, California. They’re here today with their son Ian and their Snowflake daughter Michaela.

Sharon Tesdall:
Yes, my name is Sharon Tesdall and I’m from Tuston, California, and my daughter Michaela is down here and right now princesses are just a little bit more important than you all. Sorry about that! Michaela is a Snowflake baby. She is our daily reminder that embryo adoption should be preferred over embryo destruction for stem cell-research. No one questions that she is fully human today. So how could anyone question that she was fully human in her embryonic stage of development. After all, what did any of us adoptive moms (inaudible). We added nothing except for oxygen, nutrients and a warm place to grow, and of course the love of our hearts.

Moral concerns raised regarding the destruction of human embryos for this purpose are often met with the argument that embryonic stem-cell research might provide cures for disease. While some want to destroy IVF embryos in the pursuit of treating some medical conditions, we advocate using IVF embryos to treat another medical condition, and that is infertility. Infertility affects about 10 percent of the U.S. population of reproductive age. My husband and I know about that first hand as we agonized through nine years of trying various procedures to try to cure our infertility. The medical diagnosis of infertility is no better or no worse than any other condition. Like other patients who seek medical treatment, our bodies failed us.

There is no rating system for medical diagnosis. Infertility is a valid medical diagnosis just like lupus, diabetes or Parkinson's disease. Yet few seem to recognize that through embryo adoption IVF embryos provide cures for infertility with more than 80 children born through Nightlight’s Snowflake Adoption Program alone. While U.S. statistics are sketchy, Great Britain estimates more than 1,500 former frozen embryos [have been born] to adoptive birth parents. Yes, human embryos are valuable in treating disease. Not in their destruction for stem-cell research, but in the life-giving process of treating infertility. If IVF embryos are destroyed for research, what benefit is that to infertile couples who long to have a child just like Michaela?

When you consider the success ratio of embryo adoption versus the destruction of embryos for stem-cell lines, adoption wins hands down. There is a 25 percent chance that an adopted embryo will lead to a full-term pregnancy. There is only a 5 percent chance that destroyed embryos will produce a stem-cell line. Even then, embryonic stem-cell research has not successfully treated a single patient and sadly there’s no promise of it ever doing so. Embryo adoption provides a cure for everyone involved. The IVF parents can bring moral closure to their IVF experience. The birth parents, whose dream of pregnancy and parenting is a reality, and the child that you see here today, whose gift of life is recognized.

Thank you.

(Applause)

Ron Stoddart:
Thank you to the families. I just want to recognize the other families who have joined us here today. These families are all involved in the Snowflake program. They are living proof that IVF embryos are not—it’s not necessary to be destroyed, but [they] can be destined for adoption, so let me introduce you all. Children please wave when I introduce you….

[massgopguy]

"Medical experiments for the lot of you". - The Meaning of Life

How prophetic of Monty Python.