Well Then, Think Before Committing

There was once a time when couples, eager to have a family, and finding themselves unable to, for medical reasons, adopted babies, infants and young children whom society sought to place through state-regulated adoption agencies. In this newer world order where women defend their right to control the issue of their own bodies, and women have increasingly sought termination of pregnancies, there are far fewer babies to adopt, particularly in the developed world.

There are other avenues of adoption; from afar, from developing countries where a surfeit of young children whose parents are financially incapable of raising them, or whose parents have succumbed to disease and death can be available. But then, there will always be women - and men - who passionately want to have children of their own, offspring who share their genetic inheritance. It's a striking emotional compulsion, a deep desire for many.

And for those people, in vitro fertilization has been the discovery that has enabled many to realize their dream of parenthood. In their anxiety and determination to try all and every scientific method available to produce children of their own, men and women weigh into the process of embryo-collection through in vitro fertilization. These viable embryos are stored, frozen in tanks filled with nitrogen, awaiting that time when their owners will undergo implantation in fertility clinics.

Some of these procedures will be successful, many will not. All of the wishful participants, however, are the possessors of frozen embryos retained in storage, awaiting use. For those people who finally give up on the impotent attempt to produce a child, and for those people who realize success in the final production of a child, or multiple children through a single birth, or children through multiple birth events, the 'left-over', unused embryos pose a dilemma.

Moral dilemmas come and go throughout life, and as rational beings we deal with them. But for many individuals who cannot conceive in an ordinarily functional manner, and whose personal standards lead them to abhor the decision to abort a fetus under normal circumstances, their having to reach a decision about the final disposition of unused, and therefore unwanted embryos presents a real problem. One unanticipated in the initial stages of the process of fertilization.

There's the possibility of offering additional embryos to other infertile couples, or allowing them to be used for research. Discard them? That's an agonizing choice of great indecision to a great many people who visualize the embryos as their potential offspring. Offspring they have decided, for one reason or another, to be redundant to their needs. It's estimated that there are roughly a half-million frozen embryos awaiting decision in the United States.

Canada's number is likely about 50,000. Worldwide numbers might represent the potential to populate an entire country. What to do with them? Well, they're simply tissues, a genetic tangle of material with the potential to materialize, as living, breathing, thinking, emotional human beings. There are some researchers, obstetricians, gynecologists and bioethicists who are unequivocal about the situation.

"A fertilized egg is human matter and therefore I don't feel it can be discarded if it is alive, if it is dividing. I don't have a problem with the technique of freezing embryos, except for the fact that it means there's a good potential that the frozen embryos are not going to be needed", said one doctor of a fertility clinic in Pennsylvania. It's his practise to select a specific number of embryos to be developed, leading to no 'leftover' embryos, ergo no dilemma.

Makes good sense. On the other hand, in the matter of frozen embryos, which have been kept in a state of suspended animation for years, disposal is a simple matter of immersing them in water. Moral dilemma aside, there's the matter of costs, with clinics charging anywhere from $300 to $600 annually for storage - on top of the $6,800 and $15,00 cost of each in vitro fertilization treatment cycle.

Funding better used in other ways for most people, and emotions better settled in a rational and practical manner.