A friend and fellow infertility veteran called me yesterday, and in the course of chatting we were mulling over Arizona’s recent attempts to legislate egg donation and cryopresevation of embryos.
He has two beautiful boys as the result of egg donation and IVF. It made me wonder about the motivation behind the organizations trying to impose this legislation on the fertility challenged population.
Many of the groups advocating for laws to restrict egg donation and the cryopreservation (freezing) of embryos are pro life organizations. This is puzzling to me: having seen the fertility process from egg withdrawal to embryo creation to transfer to birth reaffirmed my belief that life begins at conception.
Yet these laws, if passed, could create huge obstacles to fertility challenged couples seeking parenthood with the help of doctors. My friend and his wife would not be blissfully stressed parents of twins if it weren’t for egg donation. My 8 year old daughter would not have performed as a soldier and candy cane in her first Nutcracker this past Christmas if it weren’t for the cryopreservation of embryos.
Perhaps in their zeal to ensure that embryos aren’t mass produced for research, and women’s eggs don’t become a commodity to be sold to the highest bidder, these organizations have missed the opportunity to support millions of couples’ intense desires–and in my opinion their right–to bring life into this world with medical assistance.
To those who would say perhaps it isn’t God’s will for infertile people to have biological children, I will simply say this: tell that to my daughter and my friend’s boys.
Hey there this is a fantastic post. I’m going to e-mail this to my pals. I came on this while exploring on aol I’ll be sure to come back. thanks for sharing.
Tab–glad you liked it. Let me know if you and your pals want me to cover some specific subject–or if there are any guys in your life looking to talk about infertility or have an ART topic they just don’t feel comfortable talking about with anyone else. That’s what this blog is for.