Expendable Embryos?<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
- Those waiting to be parents would tell you there is no such thing
 
Recently I had the opportunity to speak with the mother of a Snowflake baby.   A snowflake is the term used to define a frozen embryo that has been adopted, implanted in the adopting mother's womb, and brought through delivery to the loving arms of parents who have yearned for a long awaited baby.  
 
Snowflakes Babies began as frozen embryos like those that Michael J. Fox and other embryonic stem cell advocates wrongly refer to as 'extra embryos headed for destruction' or 'embryos that will be discarded anyway'.  These phrases are used to justify killing these innocent lives who could otherwise be adopted.  
 
While ESCR so far proven dangerous on many counts to those receiving the experimental treatment, it is always fatal to every embryo involved.    No stem cell can be extracted or harvested from an embryo without killing the embryo.   Thus, these embryos are headed for certain destruction if Embryonic Stem Cell Research is allowed to kill them.
 
The other option is adoption.  These embryos can be implanted and birthed with a bright and loving future.    Many parents are now raising children who were adopted as frozen embryos.   The beauty of bonding with a child while it is still in the womb greatly advances the adoption process for a whole new generation.   
 
Cathy, the Snowflake mother I spoke with, and her husband adopted their first Snowflake baby nearly seven years ago.    With the successful birth of the baby girl, they immediately placed their name on the Snowflake waiting list and have been waiting for approximately six years.
 
Understandably, priorities are given to those parents who have not yet adopted or delivered a baby.   Due to the number of clinics with varying lists and confidentially concerning the adoption process, it is nearly impossible speculate the number of waiting parents.   We only know that there are apparently enough 'hopeful parents' waiting for these embryos that the Fays are still waiting to adopt their second snowflake.
 
If there were only a small number waiting to adopt these embryos shouldn't that be our first pursuit rather than dismissing these embryos as disposable human beings?  However, the bigger question must be asked.  If there is this much desire or 'a demand' for these embryos, how can anyone refer to them as 'extra', 'expendable', or 'doomed for destruction'?    These frozen embryos have a warm, wonderful future waiting for them.    Waiting and waiting and waiting for them.  
 
As Americans who are known for our compassion, a Country who has historically done what was right rather than easy with a Christian underpinning that causes us to care for the 'least of these', how can we NOT do everything in our power to ensure these lives have promise rather than simply being exploited as mere political plunder?     
 
 
The terms snowflake comes from the Snowflake Adoption Program offering genetic families the ability to select adopting parents to have the embryos implanted in the adopting mother and have the adopting mother give birth to her adopted child: truly a new generation of adopting mothers.
 
A snowflake is the term used to define baby, is the term used to define a frozen embryo that has been adopted, brought through gestation and   
Michael J. Fox is making quite a name for himself in the political arena through his campaigning for stem cell research.   What reputation will follow Fox remains to be seen as many contradictions and incorrect information is also coming from the Fox camp.
 
There has been much discussion on stem cell research of late.   It's become the new political sword of liberal candidates and their supporters.  The trouble is the information is often misguided or flat out incorrect.   
 
First, many don't understand the difference between embryonic stem cell research which always kills a living embryo and has never shown any type of advancement, hope, or cure and adult stem cell research which has shown between 72-83 treatments, therapies, and potential cures for many diseases and disabilities including Parkinson's, juvenile diabetes and paralysis.