We live in a very strange age of ethical quandaries. Currently in the United States, there are over 500,000 frozen embryos, or “snowflake babies,” waiting for their chance to really live.[1]
For decades medical textbooks have presented the consensus view that biological human life begins at conception.[2] For example, textbook authors Moore and Persaud explain that the very first cell resulting from fertilization “mark[s] the beginning of each of us as a unique individual.”[3] In addition, William Larsen’s textbook on embryology explains that the moment of fertilization “initiate[s] the embryonic development of a new individual.”[4] O’Rahilly and Muller also agree in their textbook that, at the moment of fertilization, “a new genetically distinct human organism is formed.”[5]
We know from the Bible that all human life is valuable because we are created in God’s image.
So, in the words of Francis Schaeffer, “how shall we then live?”
See EmbryoAdoption.org to watch a true story of embryo donation and adoption.
For information on the costs of an embryo adoption, see my blog, What is the Cost of Adoption?
Photo by lunar caustic.
[1] http://www.embryoadoption.org/adoption_agencies/index.cfm
[2] See Nathan Schlueter & Robert H. Bork, Constitutional Persons: An Exchange onAbortion 2, 5-6 (2003), available at http://www.firstthings.com/article/ 2007/06/002-constitutional-persons-an-exchange-on-abortion-13..; ROBERT P. GEORGE & CHRISTOPHER TOLLESFEN, EMBRYO: A DEFENSE OF HUMAN LIFE 47 (2008).
[3] George & Tollesfen, at 47 (citing Keith L. Moore & T.V.N. Persaud, The Developing Human 34 (7th ed. 2003)).
[4] Id. (citing William Larsen, Human Embryology 4 (3rd ed. 2001)).
[5] Id. (citing Ronan O’Rahilly and Fabiola Muller, Human Embryology and Teratology 8 (2001)).
