Posted on 12/02/2020 9:28:35 PM PST by xomething
Frozen embryo adoption is problematic not only because of in-vitro fertilization to create the child, but also because of surrogacy to give birth.
December 2, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) — In a case that presents significant ethical challenges, an embryo conceived through in-vitro fertilization 27 years ago, and subsequently frozen, was successfully implanted in her birth mother’s womb and born earlier this year.
Baby Molly Gibson was born in late October of this year, but was conceived and frozen in October 1992, making her almost three decades old at the time of her birth.
This makes the one-month-old baby almost the same age as her new parents.
The Gibson family adopted their children as frozen embryos through the National Embryo Donation Center (NEDC), a self-styled Christian organization operating out of Knoxville, Tennessee. The center says that IVF is the answer to “prayers” from families struggling to conceive and that their business offers a solution to the resultant “surplus of frozen human embryos.”
This “surplus” is no small number either, with the center positing it is “estimated at roughly 1,000,000 [embryos] in the United States.”
According to the NEDC, “Many biological parents store their frozen embryos for future use. But when those parents have completed their families, they must decide what to do with their remaining embryos. Donating them to another infertile couple is an increasingly popular option.”
Carol Sommerfelt, embryology lab director at the NEDC, told CNN that only about 75% of babies created through IVF and subsequently frozen survive the thawing process, meaning that around 25% do not; and of the 75% that do make it to implantation, only around 25-30% successfully implant in the mother’s womb.
Dr. Jason Barritt of the Southern California Reproductive Center explained that patients have a few options when considering what to do with their unwanted embryos, including “simply leaving them cryopreserved in liquid nitrogen storage tanks” for later implantation.
Barritt also mentioned “disposing of them in an appropriate way,” and “donating them to research or training for the advancement of the field of reproductive medicine.” Both of those actions necessarily imply the killing of an unborn human being.
The CNN article characterized the embryos merely as “potential human lives”, contradicting basic science proving the humanity of unborn babies.
Children born after being frozen as an embryo have a 30% higher risk of genetic abnormalities, according to the U.K. Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authorit. They are also ten times more likely to suffer rare genetic disorders, like Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome, according to Dr. Rosanna Weksberg of the University of Toronto.
In 2008, the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in its instruction Dignitas Personae had settled whether frozen embryos could be adopted.
In this document, the Church’s condemnation of IVF, along with other artificial means of conception, was resolutely affirmed. Frozen embryo adoption, the Vatican explained, is problematic because of the ethically impermissible use of surrogacy, rather than because of the creation of embryos in an unnatural fashion, since the embryos in question have already been created.
“All things considered, it needs to be recognized that the thousands of abandoned embryos represent a situation of injustice which in fact cannot be resolved,” the document concluded.
Headed toward a generational fuster cluck unless records are unsealed.
There will be first cousin and sibling unions galore.
Could play havoc with The Rule Against Perpetuities
Yeah, not "conceived" - "created!"
"Igor! It's alive! It's ALIVE! Itsaliveitsaliveitsalive! Ha-hah-hah! Finally, I know what's it's like to be a GOD!"
Well, at least they acknowledge that, upon fertilization, they are then babies. A shame that only 25% of the babies survive the thawing process, though.
Regards,
Imagine giving birth to your own great-uncle!
My personal favorite is the idea that we could "create" some 80 or 90 genetically superior embryos, freeze them, and then shoot them into space, in the hope that they might be found, adrift, centuries later by an advanced star ship.
Regards,
It is 25% that do not survive.
“Children born after being frozen as an embryo have a 30% higher risk of genetic abnormalities...”
And the longer stored I would guess the higher the risk.
“This makes the one-month-old baby almost the same age as her new parents.”
Age is counted from birthday, not conception day.
Simply WRONG. ALL of it.
On a related topic, I have often pondered whether babies who have been aborted could have another chance at life and be lucky enough to be born into families just so they could be held lovingly in a mother’s arms.
Well not embryos but Star Trek did that in “Space Seed”.
I believe that was generally the plot to "Species". It didn't work out great.
| In 2008, the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in its instruction Dignitas Personae had settled whether frozen embryos could be adopted. In this document, the Church’s condemnation of IVF, along with other artificial means of conception, was resolutely affirmed. Frozen embryo adoption, the Vatican explained, is problematic because of the ethically impermissible use of surrogacy, rather than because of the creation of embryos in an unnatural fashion, since the embryos in question have already been created. “All things considered, it needs to be recognized that the thousands of abandoned embryos represent a situation of injustice which in fact cannot be resolved,” the document concluded. |
So the baby who grows up to be a woman will wonder who she really is for the rest of her life.
How unfair to her.
Frozen embryo adoption seems a perfectly sensible solution to the problem to me. Better than discarding them or donating them to science.
There used to be an organization called “Snowflakes” I think that arranged frozen embryo adoptions.
Hope the child’s favorite song is not “Your cold, cold, heart”.
Welcome to Free Republic., The best gathering of human thought on the internet.
Anyway...
Fascinating subject. Frankly I only understand some sci-fi aspect: that embryos can be transported for long periods to reach other , non-Earth, locations.
However, it is a bald fact that species that don’t reproduce don’t survive.
She will be old enough to run for President in 2024! ;-)
2028, sorry. But still!
In the year 6565 You won't need no husband, won't need no wife You'll pick your son, pick your daughter too From the bottom of a long glass tube.
- from the song "In the year 2525"
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