Christian Worldview Concepts

The Ethics of Embryonic Biology

The Controversy Surrounding In Vitro Fertilization

In the early 1970s, researchers began experimenting with the earliest phases of human existence, seeking to understand what actually happens in conception. In 1978 their efforts resulted in the birth of Louise Brown, the first live birth using a technique called in vitro fertilization.¹ Since that time, hundreds of thousands of babies worldwide have been conceived using this method.

The ethics of this procedure continue to be controversial since in vitro procedures result in the loss of human embryos about 70-80 percent of the time. Complicating matters further is the widespread practice of producing larger quantities of embryos and cryopreserving (freezing) them for future use should the first attempt at embryo transfer fail to produce a term pregnancy.

When couples achieve the goal of a term pregnancy (or in some cases multiple term pregnancies) and do not intend to have more children, the embryos left in cryopreservation are frequently abandoned or destroyed. These so called "excess" embryos represent a problem for the couples who produced them and the clinics that store them. For the couple, it means there are human lives being held in biological limbo whose continued "storage" costs the couple several hundred dollars each year. For the clinic, these embryos take up space, require additional paperwork to track their continued presence and expose the clinic to legal liability. Quite often, the "parents" of these embryos simply ask the clinic to discard them.

This is where embryonic stem cell researchers come to the rescue. They are willing to take these "excess"quot; embryos off the hands of would-be parents and clinics rather than see them needlessly destroyed. They are more than willing to take the embryos for research, thereby freeing couples and clinics from ongoing liability, storage and other concerns.

Is it a foregone conclusion that so-called "excess" embryos will be destroyed unless they are handed over to stem cell researchers? Marlene and John Strege do not think so. Marlene, a resident of Falbrook, California and a registered occupational therapist, holds a B.S. Magna Cum Laude from the University of Southern California. She is also infertile, diagnosed with premature ovarian failure, which means that she cannot produce ova for procreation. However, the Strege's are the proud parents of little Hannah Strege. Hannah was adopted as an "excess" frozen human embryo, one of the 198,000 little "Hannahs" being warehoused in fertility clinics throughout the United States.

¹ In vitro fertilization refers to combining sperm and ova within a laboratory setting. Thus, conception occurs outside of the body of the mother and the embryo is transferred when it reaches a multi-celled stage.