This is why IVF gives me the willies. Erin is a former frozen embryo who was adopted by Tim and Dawn Smith after being conceived in a petri dish and left frozen on a shelf for 11 years because her biological parents didn’t want her. Now her adoptive parents are speaking out against embryonic stem cell research in their state. In a radio commercial against a pro-ESC research bill, Tim says, “Some would call Erin medical waste. I call her my daughter.”
And here, again, we have the difference between wanted and unwanted human life. Wanted embryos, those embryos whose parents still, for whatever reason, wish to keep them, are kept, for a fee, frozen in a lab, with a faint possibility of adoption. Those who are no longer wanted or needed are discarded as biological waste and thrown away or donated for scientific research. For either one of these scenarios to be the fate of anyone is beneath the dignity of any human person.
For more on this visit Jill Stanek’s post today about couples arguing over the fate of their frozen embryos.
2 Comments on “Parents of Former Frozen Embryo Speak Out Against ESCR”
These people should be the loudest of all.
…and just wait a few more years, when some of these adopted embryos hit their eighth and ninth birthdays…I’m sure they’ll have a few things to say about this, too.
I would look forward to actually hearing from some of these “former frozen embryos”! I think that would be a powerful statement to all those in favor of ESC research.