Storage
Frozen embryos can be stored indefinitely at fertility clinics and some hospitals. Storage rates vary on the clinic where the embryos are kept. At the Fairfax Cryobank, prices vary from $40 a month to a pre-paid $1,340 every five years. As the room in these special, freezing storage rooms decrease, the price gets costlier. However, some parents that can no longer afford to keep their children but do not wish to destroy them, often disappear, leaving the clinic in charge of what to do with the frozen embryos.
What happens now?
Pretend you are the head of a hospital. A couple with frozen embryos in storage has fled, leaving you responsible for the extras. However, your hospital cannot cover the expenses. What would you do with them?
pre-life
Quinn | 04/05/2011
So since the couple fled, does that mean those embryos belong to me and they are now my properties? Does my facility have the right to donate it to a stem research facility? Because that is what I would want to do. I would consider these frozen embryos pre-life and donating them to science which is the best fit because the chance of these frozen embryos survive after they're thaw is pretty low, right? These embryos would be helping advancing research in cancer, etc and could be helping you and your family in the future.
Adoption would be the ideal idea in the perfect world, but obviously this isn't the perfect world. I'm sure there are a lot of leftover embryos but are there enough couples out there to adopt them all? No. The real problem is here is humans are trying to play God and we are selfish sometimes to get what we want. Why are there not any regulations on how many embryos you can make at a time? I am not too familiar with this subject myself.
Re: pre-life
Belinda Duong | 04/05/2011
Because the couple has fled, it is unsure who the frozen embryos belong to. This is taken up by the courts and it varies from state to state.
Fertility doctors try to take out as many eggs as they can from the mother's womb. This is because repeated procedures causes stress on the body. And so, there are no regulations on how many they can take out. It just depends on how many eggs the mother has released when she is injected with a hormone.
Science
David Ayers | 04/04/2011
give them to a stem cell research facility. the would be parents didnt care about them so why shouldnt they go to help someone in need
Answer
Ruth | 04/04/2011
I would put them up for adoption, but if they're up for so long and our hospital can't pay for them any longer, I would give them to science. There is a quote that says, "There is something more stronger and important than blood- human ties." Many (human) lives can be saved with the success of the research, and if I had a choice between saving an embryo or saving a walking, talking, living human, I would choose the human. That human has family, friends, dreams, hopes, etc. and if that person dies, not only 1 person suffers, but also the people that the person had ties with. The frozen embryo has no ties, and only it will suffer. :(
Adoption [eh on my comment ...]
Steffi | 04/04/2011
Most logical answer is Adoption. And hey.. there are some people that would really want a child. You know, people who can still have babies but didn't get to have one. Yeah those that had stillborns. Putting up frozen embryos for adoption is like putting up orphan children for adoption. Same concept, (sorta?) right thing to do.
Answer
Elaine | 04/04/2011
Adoption time! If I was the head of the hospital, I could never just throw them away. Embryos are potential life. That would make me a murderer. I would give them to adoption so that they would have a chance at life and couples who are unable to bare their own children can have children.
Re: Answer
Emma | 04/04/2011
Two things: I agree with you when you say embryos are potential life. I disagree when you say "That would make me a murderer" if you threw away the unwanted embryos, on account of what you just said-embryos are potential life. Potential. They have not begun a life yet. They are tiny bundles of cells in stasis that could grow into a child, but could just as easily not. Discarding of these small mounds of stem cells is not at all akin to murder in any way. I think that it would be good to put them up for adoption if there are people who want them, but if not it would be wonderful to donate them to science because stem cells are badly needed to research on and that could be incredibly important and helpful medically in the long term.
Abandoned
Ashley K | 04/04/2011
I would do all in my power to get them adopted first before the others in storage (that sounds reall weird). I believe that because their parents have given up on them, they have every right to be pushed to the top of the list in the adoption portion.
If this didn't work, I would do everything I could to make sure they were not destroyed. If that means donating a few to science, I think it is a choice that would have to be made if the situation got to that big of an issue.
My Answer
Jonathan Dean | 04/04/2011
I would put them up for adoption. If that doesn't work then I will try to do everything in my power to save them.