Christine's blogs

THE HUMAN GENOME PROJECT

What to do with our nation’s stockpile of frozen embryos is of concern even to those who have pioneered the actual technology. And it is inextricably intertwined with such hotly debated issues as abortion, surrogacy, “egg brokering,” cloning, and the Human Genome project (coding of the entire human genetic map). The more we are able to do on the embryonic level, which we are realizing through the Human Genome project, the more complicated it may become for couples seeking ART.

PRE-EXISTING CONDITIONS ON THE EMBRYONIC LEVEL

One technology is called “preimplantation genetics.” This technology that began with the genetic screening of an embryo for cystic fibrosis allows prospective parents to sort and choose embryos for genetic defect, discarding the ones that will potentially be born with disease. If these capabilities, as well as proposed legislation happen within reproductive medicine, it might very well be a reality for all those visiting fertility clinics to be required to have their embryos frozen, analyzed and tested for defects. From there we are potentially only a step away from genetic screening becoming required by all major health insurance companies or we run the risk of bearing offspring who cannot obtain health coverage due to their “pre-existing conditions” prior to their births. 

KILLING PEOPLE BASED ON HEALTH

Roberge explains, “Some genetic traits are actually protectors for other types of diseases.” He also points out that we can’t know in many instances to what extent a person may be affected with a genetic disorder, as in the case of Down’s Syndrome, for example. Do we have the right to decide that life may not be worth living for someone because they may face a disorder? Says Jay Johansen of the Ohio Right to Life Group, “The ‘standard practice’ in IVF is to fertilize several ova, see which ones appear to be thriving the best, pick some to implant, perhaps freeze a couple of the ‘runner ups’ and discard the rest. We find such a practice totally unacceptable, as it blatantly calls for killing people based on health.” Johansen finds the notion of parents freezing embryos comparable to that of couples having “surplus children,” then allowing only the healthiest to live. 

WHAT ARE THE LIMITS?

The issues are so interrelated and complicated, digression toward a number of hazy realms is possible. If we are willing to take the initial step of warehousing human life in freezers and accept this as “procedure” in achieving parenthood, we begin a journey with no apparent limitations.

RAMIFICATIONS

When Christians are preparing to embark upon such a course as that of ART and all of its ramifications, they should be first and foremost able to identify themselves as that of patient or consumer. There is an increasing muddying of the distinction between the two. Fertility has not as of this time been labeled a disease, and motivations do matter. Anyone with a mouse can click onto a number of websites offering the genetic material of high-quality potential sperm or egg donors. A Christian couple should have received some diagnosis, or at best, be experiencing unexplained fertility. They should ask themselves, how long have we tried to get pregnant? What is God directing us to do? Is adoption the way we are being led? Of course, there is counting the cost of ART, both in the attempt to bear offspring as well as the price of raising the multiple children that often result from it. Then there are the health risks facing both mother and child. There are inconclusive studies on the effects of such technology on either group. In addition to all of this, there should be a certain relinquishing of control over reproduction. It is often when we surrender our wills to become pregnant that we become blessed with the reality of expecting a child.

CROSSING THE LINE

Peggy Artero, for example, is a 32-year old who has not been able to conceive again since the birth of her son six years ago. Having seen a fertility specialist for the past year, she has undergone surgery to unblock both of her fallopian tubes and had artificial insemination performed some three times. “Even though my desire to have a child is overwhelming, bordering on anguish sometimes, I believe there’s a line you don’t cross trying.” She explains that crossing that line involves forfeiting her sense of peace and justice. “Even if my husband and I could afford the cost of IVF, and we were told ‘this is your only chance of becoming pregnant,’ I wouldn’t have any back up embryos made for other attempts because once it’s an embryo, it’s like giving permission to freeze my baby. Modern technology can be taken to the point where it becomes inhumane. I felt a peace about having my surgery, but not about this.” 

WORLDLY WISDOM

The Bible tells us that ours is a God of peace, not of disorder. If we examine the staggering amount of heartbreak and chaos created as society uses its knowledge to fulfill personal choice, we see much discord among the joy. If we consider that in several recent court cases women have fought to gain custody of their frozen embryos in the hopes of becoming mothers while their former spouses have fought not to become fathers, we see a distinct lack of unity. If we understand that in the majority of these cases, it is determined by our highest courts that “ordinarily, the party wishing to avoid procreation should prevail,” and that nobody is granted custody of embryos ordered destroyed, it might penetrate our hearts that “the wisdom of the world is coming to nothing.”

LEGALITIES

Of this glut of cases in which technology is outpacing law, Nigel Cameron, Senior Vice President of The Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity says, “The courts wouldn’t allow for a man to force a woman to have an abortion if he didn’t want to become a parent.” He thinks that making a decision for the destruction of embryos is like allowing a man to choose against being a parent “after the fact.” But because of the fear of questioning the life of the unborn at a period of development well before that of the twenty-two week fetus some states currently allow aborted, permission is being granted by our legal system. The sanctity of the human rights of the party wishing to avoid parenthood, even if after the fact, is allowing such fathers of frozen embryos to walk away from the consequences of their actions in pursuing IVF. By releasing them from responsibility for that which was freely consented to, participated in and created, are we not creating a whole new class of the deadbeat dad? How can it be that the same legal system that has been known to pursue this individual with a vengeance for the life he abandons after birth is the same that protects him from reaping what he has sown in a tank at the nearby fertility clinic?

CHANGED MINDS

Motive, emotion and desire affecting the lives of frozen embryos are brought to the courts by women as well as men. In the precedent-setting case of Davis v. Davis in the Supreme Court of Tennessee, Ms. Davis, who had previously fought on the state level and won the right to save the lives of the “human beings” she and her husband had made together, referred to them in Supreme Court as “potential life.” By the time the case made it to this level, Ms. Davis had remarried and held the hope of reproducing with her new husband. She no longer wished to be implanted with hers and her ex-husband’s stored and frozen embryos, but rather wished them to be donated to another couple.