IVF and “Snowflake Babies”

IVF and “Snowflake Babies”

When humans decide to “play God,” all kinds of problems develop. A modern example is “In Vitro Fertilization,” or IVF. In this reproductive strategy, a woman’s eggs are put into a petri dish, and sperm is added to the dish, where all of the eggs are allowed to divide and grow. After five or six days, each fertilized egg has grown to a blastocyst of 100 to 200 cells. The blastocyst is transferred into a uterus, where it may or may not develop into a pregnancy.

The IVF process produces a group of dozens of embryos and raises a series of issues. What do you do with these viable embryos? They can be flushed down a toilet or donated to medical research. They can also be stored in canisters of liquid nitrogen at minus 321 degrees Fahrenheit for future use years or decades later, at up to $1000 per year.

An adoption agency called “Nightlight Christian Adoptions” has one solution. They take these frozen embryos, called “snowflake babies,” and make them available to women who want to have a baby. That includes single mothers as well as couples who cannot conceive. Part of the motivation for this process is the belief that human life begins at conception. In 2022, a “snowflake baby” showed the Supreme Court in the Dobbs case that life begins at fertilization, leading the court to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Your author can understand the frustration that goes with wanting to have a child and being unable to conceive. My wife desperately wanted to be a mother. The political landscape of when to call an embryo human is also a factor, and religious groups have entered this discussion, with both the Catholic Church and the Southern Baptist Convention opposing IVF.

What happens when a baby produced by IVF is born with a genetic disability? Who is responsible, and what happens to such a child? When a single woman becomes a mother, will the child have the needed support? Society has revised the biblical concept of a family to include any combination of adults or a single person.

God’s plan works. A family can deal with congenital disabilities, as your author has learned from experience. We adopted three wonderful children, but one was born blind and mentally challenged, with cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, and schizophrenia. We reported our story in a booklet titled “Timothy, My Son and Teacher.” Tim had a good life, and we were blessed to be allowed to raise three children. Alternatives can be technologically possible, but collateral damage from playing God can bring extra pain to parenthood as well.

— John N. Clayton © 2024
Reference: “How ‘Snowflake Babies’ Could Change IVF Politics” in Politico magazine for October 6, 2024.

The IVF War is Not Nearing a Solution

The IVF War is Not Nearing a Solution

In-vitro fertilization has become the latest issue in the political battle. In IVF, multiple eggs are harvested from a woman and then are fertilized and implanted to create a pregnancy. The usual method is to freeze the embryo produced for later implantation. The National Embryo Donation Center says that the number of frozen embryos nationwide is around a million, and nearly 100,000 babies are born annually by IVF, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The IVF war has become a problematic political issue.

After Roe v Wade was made law in 1973, frozen embryos were treated by the courts as private property, and donors could implant them, give them away, or have them destroyed. In February 2024, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that embryos created during the IVF process are “extrauterine children” and have the same rights as any other child.

This issue has produced massive legal hassles. Two couples have sued the company that accidentally destroyed their frozen embryos. Vice President Kamala Harris has been giving speeches that she calls “The Reproductive Rights Tour.” The Democratic party has brought back the overturning of Roe v Wade to make this issue a major one for their 2014 campaign. Various Republicans have taken the view that embryos are babies, but the leaders are in favor of IVF. The IVF war is not nearing a solution.

In the IVF procedure, multiple eggs are taken from the woman, fertilized, and then implanted in the woman’s uterus. The medical experts pick the one or two that look the most promising to implant in the womb and often discard the others. If there are ten eggs and eight are discarded, have eight people been murdered? Advancements in IVF technology have reduced the number of errors in this process, but there are still mistakes.

Any time humans try to take over what God has created, the result is complicated. IVF is one of many issues that resulted from advancements in medical technology. Christians need to be aware of the IVF war and try to help find solutions, not just engage in a battle of words with unbelievers.

— John N. Clayton © 2024

References: National Embryo Donation Center, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and USA Today for 2/23/24 and 2/21/24.