Very well researched and informative, Russ.
It's odd how our own instincts in these matters prove to be heralds of the truth.
And that truth is, that every human being conceived on this planet deserves the same dignity in life and death that any of us do.
The cry goes out that "They are only going to be discarded! We should harvest the benefit of them." Well, we don't do that with condemned criminals, do we?
If the unwanted or excess embryos are to be discarded, then let them be discarded with dignity, as human beings. We have procedures to deal with the dignified destruction of United States flags, after they have seen their glory, and grown tattered in our service. Let us accord our progeny the same respect, and for the same reason.
Perhaps the gesture is only symbolic, but symbolic gestures are often the most important.
"If the unwanted or excess embryos are to be discarded, then let them be discarded with dignity, as human beings. We have procedures to deal with the dignified destruction of United States flags, after they have seen their glory, and grown tattered in our service. Let us accord our progeny the same respect, and for the same reason." Thank you for your eloquent response, Bob, with which I wholeheartedly concur.
When I worked as a Department Secretary at Moses Cone Hospital in Greensboro, NC for 15 years, the Head Hospital Chaplain and I began work there the same day. He became a good friend of mine, as did his Secretary and the other fine Chaplain.
Every now and then I participated with them in loving, respectful services when there was a need to dispose of such unwanted/unclaimed embryos for the hospital.
It was my privilege to do so, remembering a long ago such loss (at 9 weeks) of my own at age 23, that was handled very badly and unhappily by a hospital in Rochester, NY.
I won't recount here the horrors of it, nor the actions of my then husband, who had even been a hospital corpsman in the Navy...a year later I ended the marriage, with good cause.
God has healed all the sorrows, forgiveness reached, and I know the child will be waiting for me to be held and loved.
In the meantime - - 