Oh, What a Tangled Web We Weave, When First We Practice to Conceive
Is it, or isn’t it? If it is, there is absolutely no room to equivocate. If an embryo is truly a human child, pontificating and political posturing must be put aside; drastic and immediate intervention is called for. The lives of real children are at stake.
In Alabama, it’s been decided: embryos are children; there’s nothing left to debate. Those in the know are absolutely certain that at the moment of conception, when sperm and egg unite to become an embryo, a human being is immediately formed. Those in the know are absolutely certain that every embryo is a child, and each child is a gift from God.
Justice Tom Parker is a man in the know. His Alabama Supreme Court recently ruled that embryos are human children. Embryos are not going to become children; they are already indisputably children and must be recognized as such. Surely recognizing the existence of a child requires some follow-through; the children can’t just be left to languish in the hands of their captors. So, what’s to be done with them? What’s to be done with all the children imprisoned in cryogenic freezers throughout the country? If they are truly children, if they are a gift from God, isn’t it mandatory that they be rescued from frozen purgatory and allowed to resume their human lives as quickly as possible (like right now)?
It’s not just a few; there may be hundreds of thousands of embryos (children) held captive in cryopreservation. When couples go to fertility clinics to consider in vitro fertilization (IVF) they are often advised to have from two to four embryos frozen for each child that might be planned. Every embryo not immediately used is cryogenically stored for years or even decades. Given time and thousands of prospective parents, the numbers have added up. Way back in 2002, a RAND-SART survey found 396,526 frozen embryos (children) being held in 430 reproductive technology facilities across the United States. It’s quite possible that there are even more than that today. There could be half a million (or more) embryos (children) stored (imprisoned) in frozen limbo at this very moment. Surely the clinics and laboratories holding them must be forced to release their hostages – they are real children, right?
But they can’t just be released; they have to be saved; and to be saved, they must be biologically nurtured for nine months. How is that to be done? There are thousands upon thousands of embryos (human babies) needing homes, and upon liberation from the freezer, their first and essential home needs to be a warm womb. Will there be enough volunteers for this “coming to Jesus” kind of moment? If you believe as Justice Tom Parker believes, and if you are a woman, won’t this be your time to step forward? Won’t this be an opportunity (or even an obligation) to put the bumper sticker words into action? If you are a Pro-Life evangelist, if you truly believe that an embryo is a human child and a gift from God, then you know that each embryo is calling out to you. Could you even think to turn away?
Yes, it’s both an opportunity to save a child and to serve God, but it will also be a heavy load to bear. Women shouldn’t be expected to bear it alone. Justice Parker and strong men like him who know that embryos are living children and God’s gift to mankind have to step forward and passionately encourage the women in their lives to do what needs to be done. Their wives, their daughters, and even their granddaughters must be lauded in their blessedness, and then supported physically, emotionally, and financially as they step forward to save the life of a child. It’s the right thing to do.
Okay, it’s almost unthinkable, but what if there aren’t enough volunteers? What if, you know, the timing just isn’t quite right for some of the faithful to step forward? What if thousands of frozen children are still left to linger in uncertainty? They can’t just be abandoned and allowed to go unclaimed. How might they be saved?
Well, should it turn out that the knowing faithful are not quite up to walking the walk, there is another possibility for rescue, and it lies right at our doorstep. There are thousands of desperate men and women standing at our border every day awaiting the slightest chance for admittance. What if some of the women standing there were offered citizenship in exchange for birthing a child? Rather than putting all those hapless would-be immigrants on busses and abandoning them in strange faraway cities, governors like Greg Abbott of Texas and Ron DeSantis of Florida could offer free rides to fertility clinics. It would be a win, win, win, type of scenario. The children would be rescued, some merciful women would attain citizenship, and those in the know who had really wanted to save the children, but for whom the timing wasn’t quite right, would be taken off the hook for coming up short.
So, do they, or don’t they? Does the good judge, Tom Parker truly believe in what he decrees? Do Parker, his fellow jurists, Alabama lawmakers, and other Pro-Life adherents really believe that embryos are children? If they do, they should already be doing what needs to be done. If the embryos are children, there’s no time to dither; it’s a real “house afire” emergency. If embryos are children, there are hundreds of thousands of children awaiting rescue right now, thousands of lives that are prone to dissipating every day. Where is the National Guard that should be surrounding each clinic and protecting the babies? Where are the men and women that should already be out on the streets signing up volunteers? And where are all those volunteers; the Pro-Life evangelists who will dutifully carry a gift from God for just nine months in order to save the life of a child? Do all the Pro-Life men and women really believe in what they proclaim, or are “embryos are children” just words for image promotion and meant to be kept comfortably in the abstract?
Aside from the blaring headlines, it’s pretty quiet out there.
Vern Loomis lives in the Detroit area and occasionally likes to comment on news and events that interest him in whatever capacity available. Besides Dissident Voice, his other musings can be found at Transcend Media Service, ZNetwork, CounterPunch, The Humanist, and The Apathetic Agnostic. Read other articles by Vern.
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