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Christianity Today, July 2004
Frozen Out
What to do with those extra embryos.
By John Van Regenmorter | posted 06/24/2004 12:01 a.m.
Jim and Susanne are facing a modern moral dilemma. Desperate for a baby after struggling
with infertility for eight years, they agreed to try in vitro fertilization with embryo
transfer (IVF-ET). Multiple eggs were surgically harvested from Susanne's ovaries and then
fertilized with Jim's sperm in the lab.
Three of the resulting embryos were implanted in Susanne's uterus in the hope that at least
one would grow into a baby. The seven remaining embryos were frozen (cryopreserved) for
later implantation attempts, if needed.
Surprise-Jim and Susanne are the proud parents of triplets, two girls and a boy. According
to the Center for Applied Reproductive Science, triplets are unusual but not unheard of.
Typically when three embryos are implanted, would-be parents can expect at best one baby.
There is about a 20 percent chance of twins and a 5 percent chance of triplets, depending
on the age of the couple.
Jim and Susanne are ecstatic with their triple blessing-and a bit frantic. Believing they
have a full quiver, they desire no more children. They wonder, What do we do with the human
life we have left on ice?
Options
Jim and Susanne are not alone. More than 400,000 frozen embryos are stored in clinics across
the United States. No one knows how long frozen embryos retain their viability, but children
have been born from embryos stored five to ten years.
A significant number of these embryos belong to believers. Many couples like Jim and Susanne
have considered donating the embryos to the clinic storing them. But there is a hitch. The
clinic offers no guarantee that recipients of their embryos will share Jim and Susanne's
Christian faith.
"As Christians," Jim says, "it would grieve us to think that children we
helped bring into this world would be raised in a non-Christian home and perhaps be lost
for eternity."
Jim and Susanne and countless others who have created frozen embryos sitting in high-tech
storage have three options:
Allow the clinic to destroy the embryos. In our culture, where embryos are not viewed
as human life, such destruction is perfectly acceptable. For believers like Jim and Susanne,
however, such a solution is abhorrent. Susanne says, "We agree with the philosophy
of [Dr. Seuss's] Horton the Elephant, 'A person's a person no matter how small.'"
Allow the embryos to remain in storage indefinitely. This is not a life-honoring
approach either. Unfortunately, according to Ron Stoddart, founder of the Snowflakes embryo
adoption program in California, this is the approach that most Christian couples seem to
be taking.
"Most couples want to avoid making a decision about their embryos," Stoddart
says, "so they just keep paying their clinic a yearly fee to keep them in frozen storage."
Donate the embryos to another infertile couple so their embryos have a chance at life.
Without doubt, this option is the most attractive for many Christians. Christians like Jim
and Susanne, however, will want to make sure that their embryos are donated to couples who
will raise their offspring to know the Lord.
Thankfully, there are Christian physicians and at least two national organizations that
gladly honor the requests of donors to find believing couples for their embryos. One of
these organizations is Nightlight Christian Adoptions in Southern California. Nightlight
began the Snowflakes embryo adoption program. Why Snowflakes? As their brochure puts it,
"Each frozen embryo is a beautiful, unique, fragile creation of God."
Stoddart adds, "An embryo is not a potential human life-it is human life with potential."
Through the Snowflakes program, genetic parents can choose adopting parents who will meet
their religious standards and values. Couples can expect to pay $6,000-$9,000 for an embryo
adoption through Snowflakes.
Another organization, the National Embryo Donation
Center (NEDC) is located at the Baptist Hospital for Women in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Last spring NEDC began an embryo donation and adoption program. Endorsed by the Christian
Medical Society, NEDC seeks to match unused embryos from in vitro fertilization with infertile
couples across the country.
The center's goal is "to give life to these tiny embryos and to give an infertile
couple a new name: parents."
Complications
Embryo donation and "adoption" is not without implications and complications.
In legal terms, there is no such thing as embryo adoption. Since our society does not grant
embryos the status of personhood, the transfer of embryos from one couple to another is
governed by contract law rather than by adoption law. Hence there is no legal requirement
for "adopting" parents to undergo a suitability assessment, though it often takes
place anyway.
Because legalities concerning the procedure remain unsettled, couples who donate and receive
embryos should have a carefully written contract drawn up by a qualified attorney. Relinquishment
of rights should be thoroughly addressed.
Those who donate embryos must also reckon with the emotions resulting from giving their
genetic children to others. And those who give birth to embryo-adopted children must decide
when and how to disclose to these children the nature of their birth.
It is not surprising, then, that couples with unneeded embryos feel conflicted. According
to a 2003 national survey commissioned by RESOLVE, the national infertility association,
only 18 percent of the association's members who had embryos in storage were likely to consider
donating their embryos to another infertile couple.
Nevertheless, embryo adoption can be the answer to prayer-both for those burdened with
unneeded embryos and also for those struggling with unresolved infertility. As one recipient
of such a gift says, "To have someone say, 'They are from us, but they are for you,'
is the most awesome thing."
After discovering the Snowflakes program on the Internet, Jim and Susanne are prayerfully
considering donating their embryos to another Christian couple. "We really want to
do the right thing," Jim says, "but it will take courage and wisdom."
Before You Begin
If a couple opts for an IVF procedure, how should they go about it? Is it necessary to produce
and freeze more embryos than are needed for implantation into the womb? Why couldn't a couple
decide to have only two or three eggs fertilized, and then have all the embryos transferred
to the womb?
This approach would eliminate frozen embryos and seems logical and wise. Unfortunately,
it is not very practical. At the best infertility clinics, the success rate for each IVF
attempt is 25-50 percent. This means that many couples undergo two, three, or more IVF attempts
before a successful pregnancy. Sadly, some couples who make repeated attempts never succeed.
What is more, the process of harvesting multiple eggs from a woman's ovaries is unpleasant,
painful, and expensive-the average cost is $12,400. Faced with such facts, most couples
who undergo IVF are willing to produce more embryos than they can use for what is known
as an initial embryo transfer attempt.
Nevertheless, a number of Christian physicians, counselors, and church bodies offer the
following rule of thumb: Do not allow more embryos to be formed than the number of children
you are willing to parent. That is, if an infertile couple feels that they can honestly
parent up to six children, then they can reasonably allow up to six embryos to be formed.
Perhaps two of the embryos will be implanted in an initial attempt, and the remainder will
be frozen for later use. It is extremely unlikely that all six embryos would become viable
pregnancies. If such a "miracle" should happen, the couple has predetermined that
they will give all six embryos a chance at life. None of their embryos will remain in limbo
on a shelf.
This life-affirming approach contrasts with creating 15, 20, or more embryos-far more children
than any single couple can realistically parent.
John Van Regenmorter is co-author of When the Cradle is Empty: Answering Tough Questions
About Infertility (Focus on the Family and Tyndale Publishing House, 2004). He also directs
Stepping Stones, a ministry of Bethany Christian Services for infertile couples.
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July 2004, Vol. 48, No. 7, Page 32.
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