Seeing Them for What They Are

Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa likened them to the period at the end of this sentence. Actress Mary Tyler Moore referred to them as little more than goldfish. And in the name of science, some want to destroy them for research, even though perfectly good — more promising, some would say — sources of human stem cells exist without destroying anything.

Human embryos. Some say people “come from” them. In fact, you were once the small cluster of human cells that make up a human embryo. Even at that time, though, each of us had his or her own distinctive genetic blueprint, never to be changed.

There exists a surplus of tiny human embryos in cold storage, left there until the mothers and fathers can decide what to do with them. The surplus is a result of infertile couples resorting to in vitro fertilization of sperm and egg in an effort to induce a successful pregnancy — a test tube baby, if you will. Doctors, hoping for success, harvest and fertilize more eggs than necessary.

Some want to use these as an endless source of stem cells for medical research. Others see them as valuable members of the human race awaiting a home of their own.

Giving them a home

The Snowflakes Embryo Adoption Program in Fullerton, Calif., has a solution: adopting the embryos. This releases them from their “frozen prison” in what Dr. James Dobson has referred to as “adoption at an earlier age.”

And now President George W. Bush is encouraging this with $1 million in the form of a grant to help publicize frozen embryo adoption. (The Snowflakes program received $506,000 of this money to produce educational materials about this adoption option.)

The idea was born of congressional testimony by parents who adopted frozen embryos, urging Congress to ban embryonic stem cell research, which would destroy children similar to the ones they held in their arms.

One family to adopt a snowflake was Doug and Heather Hutchens. “We decided to find out why we were not conceiving and found we were unable to conceive a genetic child of our own,” Heather said. “We decided to pray and wait on God’s direction while we rested in His truth that He does not make mistakes. Our marriage was not a mistake, and neither was the fact that we could not conceive.”

In July 1999 they saw an article on the Snowflakes program in Focus on the Family magazine and heard Dr. Dobson do a broadcast on the topic. Long story short, they contacted Nightlight Christian Adoptions, which runs the Snowflakes program, and in November 2001 twin sons, Sam and Ben, were born.

Today, 18 snowflake adoptions have occurred, and, as of press time, eight mothers are pregnant with nine snowflake babies. This proves that, despite what senators, actresses or learned researchers might say, these little embryos are human beings.

For more information about the Snowflake adoption program, contact Nightlight Christian Adoptions at (714) 278-1020, visit their Web site at www.nightlight.org or e-mail info@snowflakes.org