Oops! Wrong Embryos…
by David Prentice
September 23, 2009
An Ohio couple, hoping for one more child from IVF, has been told that the fertility clinic implanted the wrong embryos. The woman has now become an unintended surrogate. Because of their strong support for life, they will carry the baby to term and then relinquish him to his genetic parents.
“We knew if our embryo had been thawed and negligently put into another woman, we would expect that the child would be returned to us.”
ASRM (American Society for Reproductive Medicine) supposedly has “a series of strong protocol recommendations” for clinics. But that’s all they are, recommendations. The fertility industry oversees itself.
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Comments
I have always thought that in vitro and artificial insemination and any other kind of artificial creation of human life is on par with the attempt at cloning. We have crossed the line with in vitro and artificial insemination, thus creating a myriad of ethical quandries. Christians should be the leaders and voice that this is wrong. Not participating in it on any level.
[...] FRC’s Dr. David Prentice notes, “This is an entirely unregulated industry, a business. It’s the same manufacturing industry that brought us the ‘Octomom’ and ‘egg brokers,’ treating babies and women’s bodies and eggs as commodities.” Maybe it’s about time we took a harder look at the whole idea of cavalierly creating life in the lab. [...]
Please, before everyone jumps to conclusions and overreacts, please consider that there are more sides to this issue. We have a beautiful and amazing two year old daughter that was conceived by IVF. We have our little miracle girl because of scientific breakthroughs and terrific doctors (ours also suffered from infertility issues) that made this possible for our family. I was unable to conceive on my own due to scar tissue around my fallopian tubes thanks to a misdiagnosed appendix that ended up rupturing when I was 13 years old. I had an ectopic “tubal” pregnancy when we were first married and after trying for 12 years to get pregnant and after adopting 3 special needs older boys from foster care we were able to save the money and through IVF bring our sweet little girl into our family. I cannot imagine our family or this world without her in it. She is such a blessing to our family and we all love her dearly. Mistakes happen, and the human element is of course involved in science, but the few examples of problems arising doesn’t mean we should “throw the baby out with the bathwater” no pun intended. The few times when things go wrong should not change and ruin it for all the families that have benefited from this amazing science that makes things so right.
By: Joan M Wheeler | September 24, 2009 at 11:06 am
I am an adoptee reunited with my natural family for 35 years. I am also an advocate and activist for adoptee rights, which includes the rights of donor-conceived people.
Here is a blog post I’ve written on this topic:
Honesty, sincerity, integrity! Can you imagine that? Here’s a couple, devastated to learn this past February that the pregnancy achieved through IVF was not their biological child, this couple makes the right decision to give the baby back to his rightful parents. The boy is not yet born. The couple is devastated that they are not pregnant with their own genetic child. The genetic parents will be traveling to the hospital from another state for the delivery, but they will not be in the room for the cesarean delivery. Here’s the link to that story on CNN.
This unborn boy has the right to a truthful birth certificate. He also has rights to all of his parents.
I hope the authorities will document this boy’s conception and birth truthfully. He has two mothers. Even though the second father is not involved in conception and birth, he is emotionally connected to that baby. The couple who is going through this pregnancy has influenced this unborn baby with their voices, their emotions, their environment, and their love. They must be added to the boy’s birth certifcate: the pregant woman willl give birth to a son who is not her genetic son! The genetic parents will have their newborn placed in their arms at birth. They should also be named on the child’s birth certificate. Information about the infertility clinic where he was conceived should also be named.
Visitation should be awared to the parents who will relinquish their birth-son, and, from the boy’s perspective, he may also want to visit with these parents and their other children. After all, he was nurtured in his birth-mother’s womb and heard her other children’s voices. They are his siblings, even though they are not genetically related.