Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Giving Rights to Embryos

The incident of the woman giving birth to octuplets is providing pro-life people the opportunity to push for legislation that will define an embryo as a human being. The discussion surrounding this story and President Obama's approval of embryonic stem cell research provides the backdrop for us as Christians to discuss with our friends and neighbors a biblical approach to understanding what's at stake here.

Jill Stanek, in an article in USA Today, describes the common practice used by in vitro fertilization clinics:

"Usually 10 or fewer eggs are harvested and fertilized. The resulting unique human beings are grown in a petri dish and checked for defects. Suspected imperfect embryos are killed. Typically the doctor will implant one to five unflawed embryos. If multiples survive, selective reduction is recommended. Remaining embryos are frozen. Some die when thawed. Others are killed in the name of science."

See the entire article here.

Each of us needs to do what we can to let our representatives know how we stand on this practice.

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