Would you donate your surplus embryos to stem cell research?

Dear Mam, We are couple from Kolkata, India. We are going through a very bad time recently. My wife (age 29yrs) suffered with Endometriosis and Hydroselpinx, had a laparoscopy 2 months back, and now the doctor says that she cannot become mother without doing IVF as her left ovary and right fallopian tube has been removed from her body. But we do not have sufficient money to go for an IVF. We can feel the pain of not having baby. We would surly like to donate embryo to any research lab. Please feel free to contact.

As soon as a person uses Pre World War Germany they lost me because they are obviously extremist. No one is talking about getting rid of people that are handicap. Scare tactics

The Aztec comment made me laugh too, “At least the Aztecs only sacrificed fully developed babies (after they were born) to their "god". Yah because being born and developing into a full baby and then being tortured is so much better.

Absolutely I would donate my embryos. What else would we do with them throw them into a biowaste bin or keep them frozen forever.

Momahedger, you are right. We use life for research all the time. But some of these nut jobs do not believe that animals have souls so it does not count. We all count, but for me a stem cell is not the same as a finished product, dog or cat.

A few of the websites I used:
Findlaw.com
Mayoclinic.com
Stemcells.nih.gov
Knowledge is power. Don't trust hearsay, chain email, and (for the most part) television news. Research important issues yourself.

embryonic stem cells are cells that have not yet become anything. they are harvested long before the embryo ever becomes a fetus because once the embryo becomes a fetus, most of the cells are no longer stem cells.

i thought i would mention this because some posters seem to think that they are taken from fetuses.

and personally, i would want to donate my extra embryos rather than have them thrown out.

I'm not sure how I feel about IVF overall. We're scientifically creating more babies in a world that's overflowing with one's who are already here and need loving homes. I have a friend who's dealing with infertility, and I myself am having some issues, so I can understand the extreme desire to have a baby that is a mix if myself and my husband. However, I guess I feel that if I can't get pregnant naturally, then perhaps the universe is trying to tell me that I am meant to adopt.

If by some chance I would go to the extreme and try IVF, I think I would donate my eggs to people who are also struggling to conceive. If any of those were successful, then it would show me that I served my purpose in that situation well. And someday, I would hope to meet them.

I am pro-life, but feel that people make their own choices (sounds odd, I know), and I would have a hard time passing the embryos on to science. Could it be said that the life purpose of those embryos was to advance science? Perhaps. But I have a hard time not seeing them as future men and women.

The people who say that unsuccessful IVF is the same as abortion are nuts. Would you say a miscarriage is the same as well? There's a big difference between something naturally happening that's out of your control (non planting eggs, miscarriage), to doing something intentionally (abortion).

I have a handicapped daughter with a spinal cord injury and I would never use technology derived from this ghoulish manner. I would never donate any of my children for experiment, and once you have been pregnant you know it is life and it is wrong to do something like this. I know many people will say that I am judgmental and that it's a "waste" but children who are conceived in this manner are still children and you would never allow someone to harm your newborn, 1, 2 year old etc., so why the most tiny and defenseless? There are just some places we shouldn't go, and just because we can, doesn't make it right. It reminds me of when Germany first started getting rid of the handicapped, imperfect children, and look what it progressed into. I think all women need to stop and think about what they are doing and what we have become.

I have to look at it this way:

if the choice that my husband and I had was to
a. store them to the timelimit and then destroy them
b. allow them to be used in a national ebryo adoption bank
c.donate to research
d use all of them in another attempt with the risk of multiple births

my choice would narrow down to b and c. and since we do not have a national embryo adoption bank,then we would donate to science.

I find it very strange that people do not normally think of the animals that are used in science (not that I am against that if it is done for good reasons and as humanely as it can be done) but bring a human embryo into the picture and many scream about it being life. life is life. all life has the divine spark as it was created by God. therefore, it would put all research to a full stop. and then where would we be?

human embryos are not any more important to the colts of horses that are kept pregnant (and then the foals are killed or sent to a meat packing plant for overseas shipping) for female hormones. One type of life for another is not what I believe that God wants.

but what it comes down to is science for worthy results. to me it comes up to the conscience of each person. as I said, I would choose b first and then c. would never choose for the embryos to be kept indefinitely (how is that "life") or to be destroyed for financial reasons.

You have a perfectly valid right to disapprove of stem cell research for religious/ethical reasons and I am not questioning that. However, it is important that you not represent your opinion as fact unless you can back it up with reliable sources. So far, I am enjoying the exchange of ideas here and can appreciate the array of valid opinions expressed. Everyone's thoughts matter, whether you come from a scientific background or not.

I would donate my embryos. You know I have a question, how can an embryo be considered a true human life if you can freeze them and then unfreeze them successfully? Science/medicine can't freeze, store, and unfreeze adult or child humans, so why do some people consider embryos to be life like you and me? (idea taken from Bill Mahr). Also, I just wanted to say that there are a lot of people out there who are very selective about who or what they think should live and die. There are a lot of hypocrites out there.

From what I understand, this research has had a zero success rate . It is destruction of human life for no good reason. They have had good results with adult stem cell research.

I would do it. I want too actually. Does anyone know of a good website to go through with this?

I really cant believe the support for embryonic research. Especially from woman who wanted to bring life into their world so badly they would turn to IVF. Regardless of cost why can you not create the embryo's as needed so there are no extra lives to be 'discarded' or used as labrats.

I would totally do it..

Maybe WendyG could use the proceeds to go back to school and work on her writing skills (or lack thereof).

Anyway, if I were in that situation, I would donate my unused embryos. It's either destroy them or pay to store them indefinitely, which would get costly over time. So why not donate? I don't mind helping a cause that's much bigger than myself.

Milla- Many embryos are usually lost through IVF however because they are wanted in the first place no one seems to see this as a bad thing. If you really think about it, the lost of life is greater for IVF than abortion if you add up all the people who have had IVF and how many embryos they lost before they had 1 that made it.

Why donate your embryos, just for someone to later kill a baby?

I am in this situation. I have four fertilized embryos stored at a cost. I am on the fence whether or not to try again since it didn't work the first time and I am not sure what to do with the embryos. They make you fill out paperwork when you go through the process of IVF that discusses what your choices are if a spouse dies, divorce, many things. Then they ask what you want to do with the embryos if any of these situations arise. My doctor had the choice for research on the checklist.

I never understood why people who do IVF don't just adopt. The cost and effort is about the same, you're not messing around with a bunch medical stuff, there is no moral grey area and you don't even have to give birth. If you're in a position to do IVF and you don't adopt, I think you're selfish. There. I said it.

Oohay, can you provide a specific source for the information you provided on stem cell extraction?