[Vision2020] 500,000 Embryos Cry Out to be Born

[nickgier at roadrunner.com]

Good Morning Visionaries:

I've been really pleased with the debate generated by my columns on drugs and interrogations.  Thanks to all those who participated and continue to weigh in.

I've been wanting to do a column on the octuplets mother Nadya Suleman, so here is the result.  The full version is attached as a PDF file.

Read my other column on embryos "A FROZEN EMBRYO DEMANDS A SUBPOENA" <www.home.roadrunner.com/~nickgier/embryo.htm>, and there is more on the Jewish Golem (pretty spooky fellow) in my article on abortion at <www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier/abortion.htm>.

Let's get out and support the rights of those poor embryos!

Nick Gier

500,000 FROZEN EMBRYOS CRY OUT TO BE BORN
by Nick Gier

When octuplets mother Nadya Suleman was asked on NBC's Today show why, in each of her six pregnancies, she had all her embryos transferred to her womb, she answered emphatically: "They are my children!" 

Let us ponder the full implications of Suleman's extreme pro-life position. There are an estimated 500,000 frozen embryos in America's fertility clinics. They are left over from all the attempts at "in vitro fertilization" (IVF). 

Most people obviously have not implanted all their embryos; rather, they evidently have chosen to follow guidelines of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM).  

For women under 35 (Suleman is 33), ASRM recommends that only one embryo be transferred; for those between 35-37, ASRM sets two as a limit; for those between 38-40, just three; and for those over 40, five embryos are allowed, presumably because of increased difficulties of implantation and survival.

The number of embryo transfers per woman reported to Atlanta's Center for Disease Control and Prevention has actually gone down, but following the guidelines and the reporting to Atlanta are voluntary.  Obviously Suleman's doctor, tax cheat Michael Kamrava of Beverly Hills, allowed her to "shoot the IVF moon" in all six pregnancies. 

Illinois Right to Life, drawing on research published in the New England Medical Journal, warns "that babies conceived by IVF have a 1 in 10 risk of birth defects, twice the risk of babies born naturally. The defects included holes in their hearts, one kidney instead of two, brain abnormalities, and cleft lips and palettes."

Suleman says that her doctor informed her about these risks, but according to her logic, people who leave their embryos on ice are guilty of child abuse and should be reported to authorities. They are someone's children, and they should be transferred to wombs post haste. 

Although Suleman says that she expects her church to help her, she has, in all the interviews I've watched, not once mentioned God.  Appearing with Ophra Winfrey Suleman's father did say that it was God's will that all this happened. 

It is significant to note that the word "embryo" does appear in one translation of Psalms 139:16: "Your eyes saw my embryo; and in Your book my members were written." In most translations of this verse, the Hebrew word golem is rendered as "unformed substance." In the Jewish tradition a golem has no soul, and until 1917, the Catholic Church allowed abortions of "unformed" fetuses, those in the first trimester of pregnancy.

Chuck Colson, the prison evangelist of Watergate fame, agrees with many Christians who believe that IVF "represents a rejection of the natural order and the God who instituted that order" (The Christian Post 2/20/09). 

But Suleman's father has Martin Luther on his side, because the great reformer declared that "since God does all, we must take it that he acts even in Satan and the godless." The absolute sovereignty of God is a fundamental doctrine for conservative Christians.  

In Colson's theology God creates an average of 1,000 eggs per female and over 200 million sperm in each ejaculate.  Does God really intend that all of these eggs be fertilized and be brought into the world as babies?  

I foolishly thought that I could get everyone to agree that this is absurd until I remembered that some very powerful bachelors in the Vatican oppose contraception, because they really believe that this really is God's intention.

Biologists estimate that as many of 50 percent of all embryos fail to implant or don't survive implantation. If Luther's God wills all these things, then 500,000 embryos on ice appear to fit in quite nicely with Colson's divine "order."

Many fertility clinic clients want to donate their embryos to scientific research. As we move into the Obama era, let's hope that these people, whatever their choices, make them without fear or intimidation.

Nick Gier taught religion and philosophy at the University of Idaho for 31 years.  

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