Texas Fertility Clinics
Fertility clinics are staffed medical clinics
that assist couples, and sometimes individuals,
who want to become parents but for medical
reasons have been unable to achieve this goal
via the natural course. Clinics apply a number
of tests and sometimes very advanced medical
procedures to obtain the desired conceptions and
pregnancies.
For the male, semen collection is a standard
diagnostic test to ascertain problems with the
semen quality. In vitro fertilization is one
common assisted reproductive technology
procedure performed at a fertility clinic.
A Texas fertility clinic has taken a groundbreaking step into a
“Brave New World” by providing already created embryos for
sale to prospective parents who evaluate the traits of the
egg and sperm donors.
The Abraham Center of Life in San Antonio describes its new
commercial enterprise as the “world’s first human embryo
bank,” but critics are calling it a “baby supermarket” and a
“baby broker service.”
In making their embryo selections, prospective parents
receive photos of the male and female donors when they were
infants, even sometimes as adults, as well as family
histories and medical reports. The donors have received
medical tests, and the embryos have been “graded” medically
to assure their quality, Abraham Center director Jennalee
Ryan said in a letter on the clinic’s website.
The donors are from various ethnic groups, Ryan said. The
male donors must be college educated, and most of the female
donors have at least attended college, she said. Most of the
men have doctorates, she said. Ryan also said the center
will provide pre-tested surrogate mothers.
“Who wants an ugly, stupid kid?” she asked, according to the
Associated Press.
Pro-life medical ethicists decried the new embryo trade and
called for its regulation.
“Children are gifts to be received by parents, not toys to
be chosen from a catalog,” said C. Ben Mitchell, director of
the Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity in suburban
Chicago. “Being parents is not like shopping for a new boat
or designer handbag.”
Mitchell, a consultant for the Southern Baptist Ethics &
Religious Liberty Commission, said organizations like the
Abraham Center “have no oversight, no meaningful regulation.
They profit by preying on the desires of infertile couples.
[They] feed the most selfish impulses of our culture.”
David Stevens, head of the Christian Medical Association,
said the Abraham Center “crosses ethical and moral
boundaries by turning babies into commodities. By stressing
the educational level of sperm and egg donors, this center
is preying on parents who have fallen victim to the false
notion that babies are a status symbol and that
intelligence, race or appearance are somehow measures of
worth. Do we really want to grade babies like meat in a
supermarket?”
Ryan defended her center’s new service, telling The
Washington Post, “We’re just trying to help people have
babies. For me, that’s what this is all about: helping make
babies.”
She said her center’s service is less expensive than in
vitro fertilization and adoption. It also has a greater
success rate than IVF, she said.
The center’s first 22 embryos were from an egg donor in
Arizona and a donor from a Northern Virginia sperm bank,
Ryan told The Post. He is a lawyer, six feet tall with blond
hair and blue eyes; she is a student in her 20s with brown
hair and hazel eyes, The Post reported Jan. 6.
Previously, infertile couples have been able to select egg
or sperm donors based on their characteristics, but this is
apparently the first time embryos have been produced
ready-made for order.
The Abraham Center is named after the biblical patriarch
Abraham, whose wife, Sarah, gave birth to a son when she was
90 years old.
PILL FAILS TEST -– The greater availability of the
“morning-after” pill for women does not reduce abortions or
unwanted pregnancies, according to a new study.
The report repudiates the claims of advocates who have
argued that wider access to the pill would lower both
abortion and pregnancy rates.
The review of 23 studies on the pill, also known as
“emergency contraceptive,” showed that forecasts of expanded
availability would result in “a direct, substantial impact
... may have been overly optimistic,” three researchers
wrote in the January issue of the journal Obstetrics &
Gynecology, according to The Washington Times.
“To date, no study has shown that increased access to this
method reduces unintended pregnancy or abortion rates,” the
researchers said, adding the consistency of the study’s
“primary findings is hard to ignore.”
The study’s results came less than five months after the
Food and Drug Administration approved the non-prescription
sale to adults of Plan B, a “morning-after” pill. The FDA’s
new policy made Plan B available without a prescription for
use by women 18 and older. Females 17 and under will need a
prescription, a requirement previously for women of all
ages. Plan B will be available for purchase at pharmacies
and health clinics. It is to be kept in stock behind the
counter at each pharmacy, so proof of age can be checked,
according to the FDA.
Elizabeth Raymond and James Trussell, two of the authors of
the new study, had argued before their review that easier
access to the “morning-after” pill would reduce unintended
pregnancy and/or abortion, according to Concerned Women for
America.
“The same researchers who demanded the ‘morning-after’ pill
become non-prescription now admit that making the drug easy
to get does not live up to their promises of reducing
pregnancies and abortions,” CWA President Wendy Wright said
in a written statement. “Due to intense pressure from them
and other abortion advocates, the [FDA] caved and made it
non-prescription to buyers over 18, denying women the
medical counseling and testing that they need before taking
this drug.”
In addition to other concerns, most pro-life advocates
oppose the availability of the “morning-after” pill because
it has abortion-causing qualities. The pill works to
restrict ovulation in a woman. It also can act after
conception, thereby causing an abortion, pro-lifers point
out. This mechanism of the drug blocks implantation of a
tiny embryo in the uterine wall.
Plan B is basically a heavier dose of birth control pills.
Under the regimen, a woman takes two pills within 72 hours
of sexual intercourse and another dose 12 hours later.
The FDA approved Plan B for sale by prescription in 1999. It
had approved Preven, another “morning-after” pill, in 1998.
Preven is no longer on the market, according to the FDA.
ABORTION LEADER –- Democrat presidential candidate John
Edwards has gained the endorsement of a woman whose name is
synonymous with abortion rights advocacy.
Kate Michelman, who was president of the National Abortion
Rights Action League for nearly 20 years, has agreed to be a
senior adviser to the Edwards campaign, the Associated Press
reported Jan. 5. Michelman, whose former organization is now
known as NARAL Pro-choice America, will assist with outreach
to female voters, according to AP.
Michelman’s enlistment signals Edwards’ intention to seek
the vote of abortion supporters in a Democratic field that
apparently will include only pro-choice candidates.
Michelman made her choice even before Sen. Hillary Clinton
of New York made her intentions known whether she will be in
the 2008 race.
“I made my assessment based on factors other than gender,”
Michelman said, according to AP. “Gender’s important, but
it’s not the only factor.”
She said Edwards’ commitment to women’s rights and focus on
ending poverty convinced her to support him, AP reported.
“[Edwards] has never backed down or retreated from a woman’s
right to choose, and he understands women’s role in
society,” said Michelman, who retired from NARAL in 2004.
“And he knows that most Americans in poverty are women and
children.”
Edwards was John Kerry’s vice presidential running mate in
2004 as a senator from North Carolina.