I recently heard someone say that “an unborn baby is not merely the potential for life, but instead, a life with potential.” Immediately, I thought of my friends’ adopted child who is currently frozen in the embryo stage of development.
As they considered the options, the Davenports’ hearts were gripped by the tiniest babies available for adoption, frozen embryos. There are roughly 500,000 embryos currently being stored in medical facilities across our nation. The embryos are created from harvested eggs and sperm and conceived in a petri dish in order to provide families with an opportunity for growth through fertility treatment, namely in-vitro fertilization. These babies, though microscopic, are individual human beings each with a unique chromosomal composition that has never been – nor ever again will be – in existence.
For a wide range of reasons, the genetic parents of frozen embryos do not always choose to carry each one of their tiny offspring. When this is the case, the biological mother and father are left with three options; donate their remaining babies to medical research, destroy them, or place them for adoption. Embryo adoption is the ONLY life affirming choice. It is the ONLY way that these “lives with potential” are given a chance to develop and survive.
During the next several weeks I will be battling, through prayer and advocacy, for baby Davenport. He/she will need to undergo a risky thawing process before being placed in the womb. Next, this baby will face the tough odds of implantation. I will also be praying for baby Davenport’s parents, both adoptive and genetic, who have recognized the beautiful value in what many consider an insignificant medical byproduct and have chosen life for this child, no matter how difficult the course. Would you join me in this battle on behalf of all such children?
The process of embryo adoption is a delicate one filled with risks, dangers and unknowns. But, it is also lovely, a silent demonstration of LIFE over death. Let us not overlook the fight for LIFE that exists in the future of frozen embryos. Each of us who support rights for the unborn should be advocating not only for an end to abortion but also for expiration of the overwhelming notion that frozen embryos represent “merely the potential for life.”
For we know, that each and every precious one is actually “A LIFE WITH POTENTIAL.”
