Rejoice—and perhaps strap on your finest pair of “head for the hills” shoes—for scientists in China have finally produced what the rest of the world is terrified of: genetically-modified human embryos.

Who knew that "Every Sperm is Sacred" would be an anthem of the now-inevitable nadir of the abortion debate? Case in point: Evangelical couples doing their part to save babies by adopting... other couples' frozen embryos. And then unfreezing the embryos, implanting them in evangelical wombs, giving birth to them, and…

Well, thank goodness that's settled. The Supreme Court ruled today that children conceived via in vitro fertilization after the death of a parent aren't automatically entitled to that dead parent's Social Security benefits, as they're not technically "survivors," because they're not "natural children" as defined by…

Earlier this week, the Tennessee state Senate offered its near-unanimous approval to a measure that would make it a crime to harm a fetus at any point in a woman's pregnancy, including before 6 weeks' pregnancy when a fetus is actually technically called an "embryo." Proponents of the bill claim that it has nothing to…

On November 8, Mississippians will vote on Initiative 26, an amendment to their state's constitution declares that life begins at the moment of conception. If enacted, the measure will effectively outlaw all abortion, IVF, embryonic stem cell research, and many forms of birth control. The driving force behind this and…

Europe's highest court ruled today that it's not legal for companies to patent any sort of research method that requires the destruction of human embryos. Christian groups are super psyched about this because God says cellbabies are exactly the same as grown up humans with faces and feelings. Scientists are upset…

Pope Benedict XVI doesn't think people respect embryos enough, and said so during a recent vespers service. He also lamented how many kids are subjected to poverty, abandonment, and other ills. Surely more unwanted kids will fix this problem!

A new procedure that combines DNA from one man and two women may help produce embryos free of genetic disease. Some people are concerned about the technique, however — maybe because it resembles the scariest X-Files episode ever. [Sun]

A California woman who underwent fertility treatments has given birth to octuplets, but a new test may make the implantation of multiple embryos unnecessary, as doctors can now check the viability of eggs before fertilization.

• Did John Edward's acknowledgment of his born-out-of-wedlock daughter put the final nail in his political coffin? Elizabeth says sort of, but it's OK:

• 79-year-old Susie Mann was diagnosed with terminal intestinal cancer. Instead of giving up, Mann has decided to live out her "bucket list," and go hang-gliding, skydiving, swimming with the dolphins, and hiking the Grand Canyon on a donkey. •

In a repeal of Bush-era limitations, federal funding can now be used on any existing embryonic stem cell line, as long as the initial embryo was created for IVF and freely given by a well-informed donor. [Washington Post]

What do you do with 2,000 abandoned embryos? Dr. Robert Anderson's answer to this question highlights how the simple combination of sperm and egg has become complicated in the age of reproductive technology.

Just like Margaret noted yesterday, William Saletan writes in Slate about the anti-abortion movement's use of Nadya Suleman's notoriety to try to change Georgia's laws to define fertilized eggs as human beings.

In an apparent reaction to the Nadya Suleman case, Georgia politicians have introduced a bill that would limit the number of embryos implanted in a woman, and prevent the freezing additional embryos.

A California woman who underwent fertility treatments has given birth to octuplets, but a new test may make the implantation of multiple embryos unnecessary, as doctors can now check the viability of eggs before fertilization.

Hot on the heels of NYC socialite Alex Kuczynski's surrogacy overshare in the New York Times Magazine comes news that the majority of women who have undergone in vitro fertilization do not want to share their extra eggs. According to the Times, "53 percent did not want to donate their embryos to other couples, mostly…

Most infertility patients support using leftover embryos for stem cell research and are in favor of selling the embryos to other couples, according to a recent survey of 1,350 infertility patients at a university fertility center in Illinois. It was estimated in 2002 that nearly 400,000 embryos are in storage at U.S.…