Spare Embryos? No Such Thing!

Noelle cel­e­brated her 2-​​year-​​old birth­day at the White House last May. Pres­i­dent Bush announced to the press con­fer­ence, “You all are invited to par­take in a lit­tle birth­day cake.” She is just an ordi­nary lit­tle girl, but when she was frozen as an embryo, many peo­ple were fight­ing over her fate.

The debate con­tin­ues, as some peo­ple rec­og­nize the thou­sands of frozen embryos as chil­dren to be adopted, while oth­ers argue that they are only cells to be used for med­ical research. In this les­son we will look at the coura­geous tes­ti­mony of those that are stand­ing up for the dig­nity of these tiny human lives.

New meth­ods cre­ate new problems

Each year thou­sands of cou­ples who have prob­lems con­ceiv­ing chil­dren, try other meth­ods such as in-​​vitro fer­til­iza­tion in which the woman’s eggs are fer­til­ized out­side of her body and then re-​​inserted back into her body. This process often cre­ates many extra embryos as most cou­ples choose to fer­til­ize more eggs than needed to increase the chances of success.

Even though in-​​vitro fer­til­iza­tion is often done with the best of inten­tions, peo­ple rarely see some of the prob­lems involved. The Church con­demns in-​​vitro fer­til­iza­tion because a child deserves to be con­ceived by nor­mal means. 

Always a child of God

How­ever, the Church clearly teaches that once a child is con­ceived by nat­ural process or by in-​​vitro, the embryo is truly a child of God and deserves all the respect that should be given to every human being.

Once a child is con­ceived by in-​​vitro fer­til­iza­tion, the par­ents then face sev­eral options. They can leave the extra embryos in deep freeze and post­pone a deci­sion. They can have the extra embryos destroyed. They turn them over to sci­en­tists for stem-​​cell research (which would also destroy the embryo). Or they give them up for adop­tion. In Noelle’s case, her par­ents chose this last option.

The adop­tion story

A lov­ing cou­ple chose to adopt Noelle while she was still only an embryo. Paige and Stu­art Faulk wanted chil­dren but could not get preg­nant for four years, so they started pray­ing about what kind of adop­tion to pur­sue. When they heard about the Snowflake Frozen Embryo Adop­tion pro­gram, they were excited. Paige under­stood that “they are lives, just frozen. I just started cry­ing and knew that was what I wanted to do.”

The cou­ple actu­ally adopted eight embryos, and although only one actu­ally sur­vived the dif­fi­cult med­ical process, they see all eight as chil­dren given to them by God. “All of them are now where they are meant to be.”

Paige speaks about her daugh­ter with pride and joy, “I want her to know how much she is loved and how God’s hand has been in her life.” She is really smart, and as soon as you teach her some­thing, she’ll say “I do it!” Her large brown eyes with long lashes are lov­ing and car­ing, but also play­ful and ener­getic. Some­day her mother will tell her of the bat­tle that was fought to save her life when she was too small to defend herself.

Press con­fer­ence at the White House

Pres­i­dent Bush hosted 21 fam­i­lies who had adopted frozen embryos, thank­ing them for their gen­eros­ity in affirm­ing that every embryo is already a human being. “The chil­dren here today are reminders that every human life is a pre­cious gift of match­less value.”
“The chil­dren here today remind us that there is no such thing as a spare embryo. Every embryo is unique and genet­i­cally com­plete, like every other human being. And each of us started out our life this way. These lives are not raw mate­r­ial to be exploited, but gifts. And I com­mend each of the fam­i­lies here today for accept­ing the gift of these chil­dren and offer­ing them the gift of your love.”
The dig­nity of the per­son is more than size or power; it is present just because he exists as a spir­i­tual being unlike any other cre­ation on earth.

Stem-​​cell debate

Some abor­tion advo­cates argued that the embryo is not yet a human being. They want to use these tiny bod­ies for stem-​​cell exper­i­ments, which they believe will result in new med­ical cures. They are fight­ing for own­er­ship of these frozen embryos, and for gov­ern­ment fund­ing for their research. But the exper­i­ments kill the embryos.

There is an alter­na­tive to using human embryos for stem cell research: adult stem cells. These are cells taken from a per­son who is already grown, as well as from a new­born baby’s umbil­i­cal cord blood, and tak­ing them does not harm the per­son. There have been many pos­i­tive results in treat­ing dis­ease using adult stem cells, and more suc­cesses are hap­pen­ing every day.

Human embryos are human lives. Vocal advo­cates of embryo use make incred­i­ble promises of cures, but these claims are seri­ously ques­tioned by many other sci­en­tists. At the heart of the ques­tion is whether man can kill inno­cent lives, claim­ing to help oth­ers. It may be eas­ier to use embryos because they can­not protest unless some­one stands up for them, but we are called to live with integrity in doing what is right and not what is easiest.

Wit­nesses to human life

Even the Night­light Chris­t­ian Adop­tion Agency, which spon­sors the Snowflake pro­gram, acknowl­edges that they are try­ing to put a solu­tion to an unde­sir­able prob­lem that already exists: abuses in play­ing with fer­til­iza­tion. Yet Chris­tians have never seen the evils of the world as some­thing to escape from, but rather to face with courage and find an oppor­tu­nity to do good.

Moral the­olo­gian Fr. Thomas Williams, LC, says, “The ques­tion we need to ask is not how did they come to be, but rather what can we do to help them.” More and more peo­ple are see­ing that embryo adop­tion is a true option of love. “The pro­mo­tion of embryo adop­tion under­scores the real­ity that each human being, no mat­ter how small, is wor­thy of care by the com­mu­nity. As society’s con­scious­ness of this real­ity grows, I would fore­see a decrease in the pro­duc­tion of embryos.”

Salt of the earth

Christ tells us that our exam­ple has more impact than we real­ize, just salt can give fla­vor to an entire dish. As an exam­ple, one girl decided not to have an abor­tion because of see­ing her neigh­bor, an elderly woman, who risked snow and ice to go to Mass every day. The girl asked why she both­ered, and the woman answered that she was offer­ing it up for an end to abor­tion. The girl decided to not have an abor­tion and to wel­come her child. The girl said that if it was that impor­tant to her neigh­bor, it must be a big deal. After she had her baby, she under­stood why.

In this debate, many politi­cians, fam­i­lies, doc­tors, and stu­dents have been coura­geous and stead­fast in defend­ing human life. Even one per­son, spread­ing this story about Noelle, can help peo­ple to see the value of the lit­tle lives that are frozen now. There are still 400,000 embryos wait­ing for some­one to speak up for them, and give them a chance to live.

Bible Blurbs

“ Then he said to them, “Who­ever wel­comes this lit­tle child in my name wel­comes me; and who­ever wel­comes me wel­comes the one who sent me” Luke 9:48

“And the king will say to them in reply, ‘Amen, I say to you, what­ever you did for one of these least broth­ers of mine, you did for me.” Matthew 25:40

“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its salti­ness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for any­thing, except to be thrown out and tram­pled by men. ” Matthew 5:13

Pope Quotes

God loves life, which he has cre­ated, not death.
(Pope Bene­dict XVI, July 10, 2005 Angelus)
In a soci­ety, thirsty for gen­uine human val­ues, the com­mu­nity of believ­ers must be the bearer of the light of the Gospel, with the cer­tainty that char­ity is above all the com­mu­ni­ca­tion of truth.
(Pope Bene­dict XVI July 4, 2005)

Other Church Teaching

“No objec­tive, even though noble in itself, such as a fore­see­able advan­tage to sci­ence, to other human beings, or to soci­ety, can in any way jus­tify exper­i­men­ta­tion on liv­ing human embryos or fetuses, whether viable or not, either inside or out­side the mother’s body.”(Vat­i­can Instruc­tion on Respect for Human Life)

Saints and Heroes

A Wit­ness of Gen­er­ous Love

BLESSED RAFAELA IBARRA:
was born in Spain in 1843. As a child she had a love for the Eucharist and spir­i­tual things. Some expected her to be a nun, but she wanted to show that one can love God fer­vently in a gen­uinely Chris­t­ian mar­riage where God is a part of the covenant. She had chil­dren of her own, but also adopted nieces and nephews who were left orphaned. She took in her elderly par­ents when they became too weak to care for them­selves, and sev­eral rel­a­tives as well. Not for­get­ting the needs of the Church, she used her money to estab­lish a Hos­pice to help women and girls at risk. She founded a reli­gious order, the Sis­ters of the Holy Guardian Angels, to care for these girls. She died in 1900. She was beat­ifi ed by Pope John Paul II.

A Man of Courage and Com­pas­sion

BLESSED CEREFINO GIMENEZ MALLA :
was mar­tyred by the Com­mu­nists in the Span­ish Civil War in 1936. He was a Gypsy, and he mar­ried a Gypsy woman named Teresa. He was a good hus­band despite the dif­fi­cul­ties of con­stant wan­der­ing and upheaval,
and he sup­ported his fam­ily as an upright and hon­est horse trader. They were unable to have chil­dren of their own, so they adopted a niece, Josefi na, and gave her all of the love and affec­tion that she needed. Cerefi no was
devoted to pray­ing the rosary, but he became more famous among his neigh­bors for his good­ness to all peo­ple. In the Chris­t­ian per­se­cu­tions that broke out dur­ing the war, he was impris­oned and tor­tured for defend­ing a riest. He was offered free­dom if he agreed to stop pray­ing the rosary, but he cried “Viva Cristo Rey!” (Long Live Christ the King!) and was exe­cuted with the rosary in his hands.

Vocab­u­lary

COHERENCE: log­i­cal, orderly and con­sis­tent in rela­tion of parts

COURAGE: qual­ity of spirit that enables you to face dan­ger of pain with­out show­ing fear

GENEROSITY: Giv­ing freely of our own possessions, time and or tal­ent to some­one else.

IN-​​VITRO FERTILIZATION: Fer­til­iza­tion of an egg out­side the body of a female by the addi­tion of sperm.

INTEGRITY: Stead­fast adher­ence to a strict moral or eth­i­cal code. The state of being unimpaired; soundness. The qual­ity or con­di­tion of being whole or undi­vided; completeness.

JOY: Intense and espe­cially ecsta­tic or exultant happiness.

STEADFASTNESS: Fixed or unchanging; steady, faithful.