Browsing Tag

In-vitro fertilization

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Alabama Supreme Court Grants Legal Protection to Frozen Embryos

Posted on February 20, 2024

The Alabama Supreme Court ruled Friday that frozen embryos are children. The landmark  decision has longterm implications that could ultimately provide legal protection for unborn embryos, including those that have been frozen in the in vitro process. The wording was strongly based in the Word of God. (“Theology-riddled” is what opponents call it). 

The ruling was based in Alabama Constitution Section 36.06 which argues that each person was made in God’s image, meaning each life has incalculable value that “cannot be wrongfully destroyed without incurring the wrath of a holy God.” 

The ruling specifically said “Section 36.06 recognizes that this is true of unborn human life no less than it is of all other human life—that even before birth, all human beings bear the image of God, and their lives cannot be destroyed without effacing His glory.”

Opponents of the ruling are warning that the ruling may have “harmful consequences” for fertility treatments in Alabama, of course referring to in vitro implantations and the freezing of left-over embryos. The problem of abandoned “freezer embryos” is mammoth nationwide. There are currently over a million frozen embryos and the numbers are drastically rising each year. Hundreds of thousands have simply been abandoned and cast aside. 

The case before the Alabama Supreme Court was one in which the embryos had been accidentally dropped at the storage facility. Parents had filed a wrongful death suit. The Alabama Supreme Court overturned a Mobile County court decision to dismiss the suit. The couple may now sue for wrongful death. 

I have great sympathy for this couple in this wrongful death scenario. I offer prayers for the hundreds of thousands of abandoned lives in storage facilities across our nation. And I have never been more proud to be an Alabamian. I hope you will pray as this ruling faces the possibility of appeal. Who in this world will stand against the atrocity that most commonly accompanies in vitro fertilization, if not Christians?

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Questions and Answers: In Vitro Fertilization

Posted on August 26, 2020

Question: Is in vitro fertilization a process in which Christians can ethically participate?

I must write about this because my conscience pricks me powerfully. I know that I am not all-knowing, especially when it comes to the technological advances that have allowed us to implant embryos. I believe it’s very important for us to remember that, just because a process can medically be done, and just because it fulfills the deep desires of parenthood in those who are infertile, does not mean that it’s God-approved. It cannot be right for parents to bring life into the world with the INTENTION of not parenting to adulthood (and beyond) each of any children produced in the process. When we start viewing embryos as the tiniest of humans–when we see them as babies–it should be easy for us to see that it is unconscionable for us to select SOME of the children we have created, and then to reject others. It’s not the rescue of embryos already “orphaned” (for lack of a better word), that’s wrong. It’s the intentional bearing of “extra children”–knowing that there will likely be those children that I will not “use,” (and let me say there’s a separate eternal issue involved when passing them along to those who are not New Testament Christians). If we think about these “leftover” embryos as the children that they are, with complete genetics already formed by the Creator, it becomes impossible for us to consider that we could pre-determine, prior to conception, to “donate” our children to others for the teaching, provision, raising and loving. I know that this issue runs deep in the hearts of women, but we are failing to consider that we are endorsing the process of the biological parenting of children without intent to raise those children whenever we encourage parents to participate in IVF as commonly practiced. I love my sisters so very much and I am thinking that most women reading are doing so because they love God. But I’m praying for (and typing this for) the children that are at risk in the process that brings about their existence and, for many, their ultimate rejection by parents. IVF could only be God-approved if the parents who are bringing life into this world intend to nurture every life for which they are responsible…every fertilized egg.

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Practical Pure Religion: Your Chance to Help…

Posted on November 15, 2019
Practical Pure Religion: Your Chance to Help
 
It’s a rare thing that I ever appeal, in this blog, for funding for any private endeavor. However, during the past few years, I’ve sometimes been asked the question “How can I (or we) find the best way to keep the command of James 1:27 to care for the fatherless?” To this question I’ve recommended a children’s home that I know to be directed by God’s faithful people and I’ve recommended various pro-life organizations. Adoption is obviously another path to James 1:27 fulfillment, but sometimes it’s a very expensive process.
 
Several months ago, I was contacted to help find parents for five embryos being stored in frozen containers. These embryos are known as “leftover embryos” from an earlier in-vitro process. While I know that there are thousands upon thousands of stored embryos in our country, I cannot help each individual one. This is the first time, though, that I had been asked to participate in trying to find Christian homes from which these tiny children, with eternal souls, can grow and live for the Lord and, one day, die and go to heaven. So I began to search and pray for these parents.
 
At this juncture, I must say that I’m convicted that in-vitro fertilization (IVF) is a process that involves abortion in almost all, if not all, cases, Multiple eggs are fertilized in the process (usually about 15-20 eggs—sometimes as many as 40). Generally, fertilized embryos are discarded when chromosomal defects are detected. Then the most viable of the group of fertilized embryos are implanted, usually one or two at the time, and, routinely, a number of “extra” healthy embryos are placed in storage, in case other children are wanted later or the first attempt at pregnancy is unsuccessful, which is, in many instances, the case. As you can see, it is a process in which, typically, multiple fertilized eggs are eliminated. It’s also a process that’s left an estimated one million-plus embryos (babies) in storage in the United States. About 5-7 percent of these are abandoned and no one is even paying the storage fees for these abandoned lives. In any case, in which fertilized eggs are destroyed, abandoned or left in storage without implantation, IVF clearly violates the sanctity of life that Christians hold dear.
 
While I cannot support or endorse IVF, unless there is a case in which all fertilized eggs are given the chance to live and develop in the womb, I certainly can search for parents for babies who’ve already been frozen and for whom there’s no current plan for placement in a home. And God has blessed me in the search. I was able to contact a faithful couple—exemplary Christians who had been praying for children. This special couple is willing and thankful to be able to implant all five of the embryos for which I had been praying. They have begun praying diligently for these children, that they will survive the transfers and implantations; and, while they know that it’s unlikely that all five will survive, they are praying for each of the five little lives—for health and wholeness. They are, most of all, praying for these five souls, that they might be able to raise them up to walk in the ways of the Lord. In their words “Our biggest goal is to raise them in a Christian home, giving them all the tools possible to stay on the narrow path once they are grown. We are so grateful for this chance to adopt, not just to grow our family, but to put our beliefs in action by…standing for life.”
 
For this reason, I’m now trying to help this godly couple, who have been approved for this adoption and the implantations (there will likely be three separate implantations over time), to accomplish this lofty financial goal. While the cost is much more than this amount, they are trying now to raise just five thousand dollars. They’ve been personally saving. There are a few donors, who believe deeply in the ability of this couple to raise these children, who’ve donated. But I want readers to have the chance to help, too.
 
I already know there are some of you who want to help. That’s the kind of women you are. The elders at the West Huntsville church have agreed to collect these funds for them. If you’d like to send a donation, make your check payable to:
 
West Huntsville church of Christ
1519 Old Monrovia Road NW
Huntsville, AL 35806
 
Earmark the check: adoption of five.
 
If, by His grace, we should get more than the 5K, we will apply the rest to the cost of their travel for implantation, if needed, and to jumpstart them in the big and expensive journey of raising these kids! I will let you know how much we are able to give them.
 
Finally, will you pray?…for the babies, for the parents, and for the ultimate good in the kingdom that may come through this faithful family. Pray for kabad!
 
Thanks for being the women of God that you are!
 
 
Because of the Cross!