> "I'm confused. What about embryos from fertility clinics, where there are more produced than necessary to achieve conception? Do we toss those? Sorry. I understand limiting in most circumstances, but if we are not opposed artificial conception, then why would we be opposed to doing something with the leftovers rather than wasting them?" <
We should never have allowed them to be there, and we should prevent any new additions to those already present. I believe that we should require - and always should have required - a release from the parents to permit adoption of these orphans, just like other orphans not wanted by their biological parents.
I understand that extra embryos are created in the usual process, that many do not develop properly, and that implantation is frequently unsuccessful. So what? Give them the respect they deserve, and always have deserved since they became the unique creations they now are. If you need to make children this way instead of adopting and loving an existing child, give your own offspring the same opportunity to live. And if you can't stand the idea of your progeny living loving, and growing in another family, you are not mature enough to be a parent, anyway.
And what about all the genetically defective embryos, such as the ones which Reproductive Genetics Institute announced yesterday that it had used to establish stem cell lines carrying specific serious genetic defects, for use in research on those diseases? Do you really think those embryos are going to be adopted? Are you going to adopt and carry to term an embryo which you know has muscular dystrophy or Fanconi's anemia, when there is a huge supply of genetically normal embryos? And in the case of these new defect-carrying stem cell lines, the biological parents WANTED the embryos used for research (likely because most of these parents already had a child afflicted with one of these horrible disease, and hope to spare others from it). Should the government really be able to force these parents to leave these embryos languishing in a freezer with no realistic chance of adoption?