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Are frozen embryos really people? Alabama has put the question at the nation’s front of mind
American Thinker ^ | 02/23/2024 | Robert Arvay

Posted on 02/23/2024 10:00:09 AM PST by SeekAndFind

I have been pro-life ever since, in my childhood, I first heard of abortion. Killing a developing baby in his mother’s womb is clearly an act of killing an innocent person. It is one issue on which science and morality agree.

Technology has, however, intruded into the domain of what is and is not moral. Surrogate motherhood has, for many people, solved the heartbreak of childlessness. A woman who is incapable of carrying a child to term may have one (or usually more) of her eggs fertilized with her husband’s sperm, and then have a resulting embryo transplanted, so to speak, into the uterus of a woman, a surrogate mother, who can “take it from there,” gestating the child to full term. After nine months, the husband and wife happily welcome their newborn offspring into their home, and thereafter parent the child to adulthood.

What could go wrong?

One thing that sometimes does go wrong is that the surrogate mother, having internally nurtured a baby for thirty-six weeks, and then given birth, develops a strong emotional bond with the child. Having then to surrender that child to another woman, albeit the genetic mother, can be emotionally painful, even devastating.

Lawyers get involved. Contract law is applied. Courts make decisions. Legislatures attempt to remedy perceived injustices. Simply put, there is no “simply put.”

The first recorded surrogate mother was a woman named Hagar, concubine of Abraham. According to Genesis, chapter 16, Abraham’s wife Sarai had not conceived, not even into old age, and so she and her husband decided that Abraham should impregnate Hagar, with the hope of giving Abraham a son. What could go wrong? Much did, including personal conflict between the two women.

(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...


TOPICS: Health/Medicine; Religion; Science; Society
KEYWORDS: alabama; embryos; humanity; prolife
Hagar gave birth to Ishmael, ancestor of the Arab race. Both Hagar and Ishmael were eventually expelled from Abraham’s and Sarai’s presence, and history has been dramatically affected ever since.
1 posted on 02/23/2024 10:00:09 AM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

Yes. We call Hagar horrible, when really it was Abraham who was particularly eligible for censure


2 posted on 02/23/2024 10:03:21 AM PST by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion, or satire, or both.)
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To: SeekAndFind

is American Thinker really the appropriate name for this publication?


3 posted on 02/23/2024 10:05:38 AM PST by babble-on
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To: SeekAndFind

If you have to kill it to disperse of it, then it’s alive.


4 posted on 02/23/2024 10:18:36 AM PST by Pure Country (�I�ve noticed that every person that is for abortion has already been born.� -Ronald Reagan )
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To: SeekAndFind

We live in a 21st century, post-modern, marxist-materialist world, and our society and government actively promote this.

Many Americans could not care less, or think this is an irrelevant or foolish debate. This includes many “conservatives” who are focused on schemes to win the next election.

America is losing its soul. It is a fundamental debate that absolutely must be had. What is a human? Who has the most basic rights to life? Are we (and especially our society and state) bound by the laws of a Christian God? If we deem humans are expendable, then you simply can not expect any “rights” to exist. We are then in hell.


5 posted on 02/23/2024 10:18:49 AM PST by PGR88
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To: SeekAndFind
Yes!

Embryos are really people! (from the moment of conception)

6 posted on 02/23/2024 10:23:42 AM PST by G Larry (It's RACIST to impose SLAVE WAGES on LEGAL immigrants and minorities by importing ILLEGAL Laborers)
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To: Pure Country

Using this logic....then you should have a tax deduction nine months prior to birth....both on state/federal taxes. For some reason, I don’t see either being agreeable to that. Plus....would someone issue a ssn for the embryo?


7 posted on 02/23/2024 10:35:59 AM PST by pepsionice
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To: PGR88

I became pro-life in 1978, when I started working as a medical technician in the NICU. We were required, morally, ethically, and legally to try to save the babies in the NICU. Many of them were born at 6 months gestation. And literally on the same floor, around the corner, they were killing babies through abortion who were older than the ones we were obligated to save in the NICU.

The ONLY difference was that the mothers of the babies in the NICU wanted their children, and the mothers of the babies being aborted did not. And I thought to myself “if that’s how we’re going to decide who gets to live and who doesn’t, that someone else has to want us, then that’s a really dark place that I don’t want to go.” If we, as a society, are not willing to pay the price of defending the right to life of ALL the innocent, then we will necessarily end up in that very dark place. And I think it’s clear we’re very close to it, if not already there.

The problem of frozen embryos is just one of the many problems with IVF, but if they are human beings, and they obviously are, then we have to be willing to pay the price of defending their lives.

I understand the implications. But as pro-lifers, are we willing to put our money where our mouths are, or not?


8 posted on 02/23/2024 10:38:06 AM PST by scouter (As for me and my household... We will serve the LORD.)
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To: pepsionice

Those are political and prudential decisions. There is no moral imperative to issue a SSN to someone at birth. I didn’t get mine until I got my first job at 17 years old.


9 posted on 02/23/2024 10:41:34 AM PST by scouter (As for me and my household... We will serve the LORD.)
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To: G Larry
Embryos are really people! (from the moment of conception)

Exactly right. When we speak of human zygotes, embryos, fetuses, babies, children, teenagers, adults, middle-aged, and old age, these are are simply descriptions of the various stages of human development. Some occur on one side of the birth canal, others on the other side. Some may be imperfect or unwanted by their parents or by society. But all are living human beings. All have an equal human dignity. None should unjustly be deprived of life.

10 posted on 02/23/2024 10:41:45 AM PST by fidelis (Ecce Crucem Domini! Fugite partes adversae! Vicit Leo de tribu Juda, Radix David! Alleluia!)
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To: scouter

God bless you.


11 posted on 02/23/2024 10:42:20 AM PST by D_Idaho ("For we wrestle not against flesh and blood...")
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To: scouter

And if our political candidates run on this issue, then they may be clubbed over the head with it and lose. Will the liberal Dems doing the clubbing protect those lives better if they win on this issue? These are fascinating questions of strategy were the consequences so uncertain for the unborn.


12 posted on 02/23/2024 11:06:42 AM PST by desertsolitaire
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To: SeekAndFind
Here's my problem...when they actually implant these...they can grow...and become....until then, they are not viable. And IIRC, they destroy the remaining eggs once someones get pregnant...or there are none left.

Until they are implanted and take, they are not people.

13 posted on 02/23/2024 11:13:04 AM PST by Sacajaweau
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To: fidelis

I and my wife are pro life but there has to be lines drawn. IVF is critical for so many couples and to put legal charges against them for not using all the fertilized eggs is insane. We talk all the time about common sense and the clown actions of the .democrats but people here that want to penalize a couple for IVF are part of the clown world.


14 posted on 02/23/2024 11:53:41 AM PST by georgiarat (We must be free not because we claim freedom, but because we practice it. William Faulkner )
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To: georgiarat
I and my wife are pro life but there has to be lines drawn.

Where do we draw the line at the taking of an innocent human life? If we are countenance taking the life one category of people for our own convenience and satisfaction, who is next?

We talk all the time about common sense and the clown actions of the .democrats but people here that want to penalize a couple for IVF

If some people here say that, they are fools. But the real point is whether IVF is any different than the murder of a born person. Science now unequivocally tells us that at conception, it is a human being. That should be the starting point for any consideration of this question, not the aftermath.

15 posted on 02/23/2024 12:24:14 PM PST by fidelis (Ecce Crucem Domini! Fugite partes adversae! Vicit Leo de tribu Juda, Radix David! Alleluia!)
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To: georgiarat
We talk all the time about common sense and the clown actions of the .democrats but people here that want to penalize a couple for IVF are part of the clown world.

And they thrown more gas on the abortion fire that energizes Marxist Democrats, winning them elections and losing us not only on the pro-life issue but every other conservative position as well.

16 posted on 02/23/2024 12:30:58 PM PST by Drew68
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To: G Larry

Cool. Then I can freeze a bunch of them and declare them as dependents on my taxes.


17 posted on 02/23/2024 12:45:44 PM PST by nonliberal (Z.)
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To: pepsionice
Using this logic....then you should have a tax deduction nine months prior to birth....both on state/federal taxes. For some reason, I don’t see either being agreeable to that. Plus....would someone issue a ssn for the embryo?

And using that logic ... US Tax Law supersedes God's law.

18 posted on 02/23/2024 12:52:54 PM PST by al_c (Democrats: Party over Common Sense)
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To: nonliberal

Take that up with God and the IRS.


19 posted on 02/23/2024 3:01:22 PM PST by G Larry (It's RACIST to impose SLAVE WAGES on LEGAL immigrants and minorities by importing ILLEGAL Laborers)
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To: Drew68

No, we throw more gas on ourselves and light the match while the Democrats cheer on our stupidity.


20 posted on 02/23/2024 6:47:07 PM PST by georgiarat (We must be free not because we claim freedom, but because we practice it. William Faulkner )
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