The woman across the table told Dr. Jeanne Loring she was on the horns of a dilemma: feed and clothe her existing family, or continue to pay to keep frozen her embryos from an earlier fertility treatment.
The woman, a hairdresser who was married to a mechanic, had had one child and then triplets — all born after successful in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments.
“I can’t afford to keep the remaining embryos frozen,” the woman told Loring over lunch. “I can’t afford to feed the family I have.”
The question of what to do with excess (or unused) embryos is a vexing one for parents who have completed their families….
It seems irresponsible to fertilize more eggs than can or will be used.
How about a Christian burial?
This is one of those problems whose solution is never to have done it in the first place. However, I still would opt for burial.
Frozen embryos can be donated to infertile couples who would otherwise create them.
I meant to say “who would otherwise create them themselves from donated eggs and sperm.” By the way, the article seems to totally misrepresent the position of the Catholic Church as saying that it objects to the creation of “excess embryos.” Actually, it objects to the creation of any embryos.
#5 objects to the “artificial” creation of any embryos, of course.