There is a thought that enters the mind of every blissful new parent as they cradle the newborn infant that would not have been possible without the brave efforts of fertility clinics: "What do we do with the nine frozen spares?"
Yes, it's a question on the forebrain of many these days, as more than 400,000 frozen fetuses languish in refrigeration across the nation. According to the New York Times, the tendency amongst American would-be parents is, at the risk of sounding crude, to buy in bulk: Where only one or two children are desired, several fertilized embryos are created in defense of stillbirth.
Risk management is a strange aspect of modern parenting and one that causes some contradiction when coupled with American moral squeamishness. After all, what is a frozen fetus other than an abortion debate and a stem-cell research talking point blended together and chilled to below zero?
Adding another element to the debate is the fact that a parent that gets a child out of a test-tube may have a hard time throwing the other 10 tubes in the trash; it feels too much like killing one's own children.
In the meantime, these embryos sit in stasis, although it might be more appropriate to say that they sit and slowly die. At the risk of sounding crude again, these things have a shelf life. A frozen embryo can't remain viable for more than 10 years, at the outside.
So what should be done here? First of all, these fools should not be allowed to create 10 test-tube-babies. Instead, the American system should be modeled on the Italian system, in which the number of test-tubers cannot exceed the number of infants that the mother could fit in her womb at one time. This seems logical, but then again, you can super-size everything else in this country, so maybe people need this one explained to them. This eliminates the problem of excess pretty much in its entirety.
Second, parents also need to be more aware of the repercussions of their actions.
Finally, in order to make it a viable option, stem-cell research needs to be legalized with no restraints. America has no place installing a morality in its legal system.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
