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To: wideawake; sinkspur; Aquinasfan
Oh, and I'm presuming that embryo adoption would only become a morally licit solution if and when IVF (or at least the creation of surplus embryos via IVF, like in Italy and Germany) is banned. Obviously it would be highly problematic in an environment where people are allowed to create surplus embryos at will. It could increase the incentives to create more embryos, and maybe even result in a market for them. I certainly would not want to go down that road.
3 posted on 10/27/2004 9:48:29 PM PDT by curiosity
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To: curiosity
The donating couple receives absolutely no remuneration from donating the embryos. The donating couple has reached a point where they don't want to pay the maintenance costs on keeping the babies frozen and have three options:

1) Discard the babies as medical waste.
2) Donate the babies to research.
3) Release all rights to the babies and allow them to be adopted.

Option #3 is the only moral choice.
4 posted on 10/27/2004 10:45:29 PM PDT by politicket
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First, this is a very complex issue, and opinions vary widely. I am only expressing my opinions. I do not present them as being any better than another person's opinions. This seems like a personal matter to me, and it seems appropriate for each person to form a personal belief and act accordingly.

These frozen embryos are not babies. They're microscopic. Viewed under a microscope, they do not in any way resemble miniature babies. These are masses of undifferentiated cells. No nervous system, no internal organs, no circulatory system.

Just as a stalk of wheat is not a loaf of bread or a bottle of beer, these are not babies. But just as wheat can be milled, mixed with yeast and water, allowed to rise, then baked and a loaf of bread results, an embryonic mass of cells has the potential to be a human. That potential counts for something. Each person must assign their own value to this potential. I believe the value occurs as a result of gestation and prenatal nurturing. Others may not agree, and that's OK.

Now the political part. Given this is by nature a personal matter, I do not believe the government should intervene. People should be allowed to decide what to do with their cells, containing their genetic material. People should decide at what point in the early stage of development they have a prenatal child.

Religion has long served as a moral guide in making these decisions, and that seems appropriate. But given the relatively large number of child abuse cases in the Catholic Church, and the apparent evidence that the Catholic Church knew about the abuse and usually protected priests, I'd be wary of accepting the advice of the Catholic Church on matters of child welfare. I think they've lost the moral high ground, and that's limiting their effectiveness as an advisor on all moral issues. Historically, they have a bad track record on matters of science as well, having confined an aged Galileo to house arrest for speaking the truth when it differed with the official Church position.

On a more pragmatic note, there are hundreds of thousands of frozen embryos. It is not practical to attempt to rescue them. Even if there were enough willing women with a womb for rent, we'd have a lot of extra children contributing to a more crowded world. That seems immoral with so many babies aborted and abandoned every year. In addition, most of these are embryos from couples who have trouble conceiving. Many are from parents beyond the prime age of conception, and the embyros will have genetic defects such as trisomy 21 (Down's Syndrome) and other terrible afflictions.

As I said, it's a complex matter. I'd be surprised if there was a simple solution.


5 posted on 10/27/2004 11:12:14 PM PDT by LibertyIsGood
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