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Abandoned Embryos And The Complexities Of Reproductive Technology

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RubyPenelope
06/23/09

In reply to Abandoned Embryos And The Complexities Of Reproductive Technology
Its things like this that kind of disturb me about in-vitro and the whole infertility big business. I don't begrudge people the children they so badly want but I can't help feeling that the creation of life this way ends up treating humans cavalierly. That women harm their bodies and suffer emotionally to achieve a biological child. I feel like if so much value wasn't placed on that then women wouldn't be willing to go to such extremes and we wouldn't have to wonder about what to do with frozen embryos that no longer hold any value to the people so willing to create them. I'm not faulting anyone who goes this route, I just feel like we accept it as a way of way of life now and I'm not so comfortable with that.
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Flackette Goes Retro
06/23/09

@RubyPenelope: I feel the same. I don't fault the individuals who pursue this route, but nonetheless it has never made sense to me. If I decided to have children and found that I was infertile, the first thought in my head would be adoption - but that's because my family has first-hand experience with adoption so it's very ordinary to me. My dad was adopted, so I don't share DNA with his parents, but that didn't make them any less my grandparents, or him any less their child. DNA is just a genetic lottery - it's a lifetime caring for a child that makes them yours. I really wish we would invest half the money that goes into reproductive medicine and crazy fertility treatments into making adoption affordable and feasible for more families.
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Deaf Mute
06/22/09

In reply to Abandoned Embryos And The Complexities Of Reproductive Technology
"Donating to another couple is the least popular option."

Why?

You don't want the embryo, why not let some couple have it?

I just don't understand why it is less popular than discarding them.
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RustyHeadedGirl
06/22/09

@Deaf Mute: The reason I've seen cited a few places (I've done research into egg donation, as a donator cause I'm poor and I'm more than happy to help people have kids) is the idea of accidental incest. That if someone else adopts their embryos, their children might one day encounter this individual who is their genetic sibling and totally hit it off and they have to find out that it's an incestuous relationship and that's icky.

It's not 100% rational, but I can understand it.
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mommy_dearest
06/22/09

@RustyHeadedGirl thinks everything just tasted purple for a ...: I think for a lot of people it is less the fear of accidental incest and more the feeling of having a child out there and not knowing anything about it, or even knowing if it exists. The egg might result in a pregnancy, might not, but you wouldn't be informed either way. So you would always be looking at people with kids and wondering. I wouldn't want that in the least.

And donating it to research is a way to contribute to life saving medicine.
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Flackette Goes Retro
06/23/09

@RustyHeadedGirl thinks everything just tasted purple for a ...: But technically adoption has the same problem.
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Flackette Goes Retro
06/23/09

@Deaf Mute: My honest, and unkind, opinion is that people who are so invested in the idea of a biological child to perpetuate their DNA see their genetic material as so special and proprietary that they couldn't bear to have a child born of that DNA raised by someone else. But then, as I come from a family where adoption is openly talked about (my dad was adopted), I have never understood the burning desire to go to extraordinary lengths to have a child composed of one's own DNA if there is any possibility of adopting instead. (I do realize that adoption has its own issues and expenses, and is becoming increasingly difficult.)
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BrutallyHonestBabes (aka Mrs. Sarah.of.a.Lesser.Hobbit)
06/22/09

In reply to Abandoned Embryos And The Complexities Of Reproductive Technology
Wait - I bet all the women who assholed around outside of Dr. Tiller's clinic the other day would be glad to donate their bodies to give those precious lives a chance! And the men at the clinic, why I just get they are willing to give their daughters and wives up to the cause.
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Grim Reaper of the Forest
06/23/09

@BrutallyHonestBabes (aka Mrs. Sarah.of.a.Lesser.Hobbit): That was my exact thought while watching Stewart interview Huckabee. If all these embryos are 'real people', why aren't the pro-lifers volunteering their uteruses.
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andBegorrah
06/22/09

In reply to Abandoned Embryos And The Complexities Of Reproductive Technology
Well, after a long day of boner killing there's nothing I crave more than a big omelette, so....
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BrutallyHonestBabes (aka Mrs. Sarah.of.a.Lesser.Hobbit)
06/22/09

@andBegorrah: snerk. Nothing gets me hungrier than ruining some boners. It takes effort, yo.
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