The term "snowflake babies" might sound whimsical, but it refers to a deadly serious and often overlooked pro-life issue.
The National Embryo Donation Center, located in Nashville, Tennessee, estimates there are approximately 1 million frozen human embryos — frequently called "snowflakes" — in the U.S., and that number is increasing daily. According to one source, less than 15% of these "unused" snowflake babies are donated to another couple or placed for legal adoption.
How does a snowflake baby occur? In the well-known — and still unregulated — process of in vitro fertilization (IVF), technicians create many "extra" IVF embryos for each couple in a lab setting. In this process, there are four points where IVF embryos are killed.
In a process heartlessly called "culling," technicians analyze which IVF embryos meet the genetic criteria of both the parents and scientists. Those not making the first cut are destroyed.
After that, several of the remaining IVF embryos are implanted in the woman. Not all of the IVF embryos survive this process — a second destruction of IVF embryos.
Next, if multiple IVF embryos successfully implant in the woman's uterus, one or more of them might be manually "reduced," leaving only the desired number of IVF embryos to grow. This third deliberate destruction of one or more implanted IVF embryos fits the definition of what most commonly understood as abortion, a procedure that intentionally terminates the healthy gestation of an unborn baby.
Finally, the remaining "extra" IVF embryos are frozen. Since not all of the extra IVF embryos will survive the liquid nitrogen freezing process, this is the fourth destructive moment in the IVF process.
The legal issue of IVF embryo destruction was addressed by the Alabama Supreme Court on Feb. 16. The court ruled that the legal term "wrongful death of a minor" equally applies to human embryos "regardless of their location," whether they are located "inside the womb" or "outside of the womb."
This historic, landmark decision in Alabama equated "the rights of the unborn child" to "the rights of born children."
What are the rights of born children? Among them are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Why? Because all unborn children are endowed with these unalienable rights (and a soul) by their creator at the moment of fertilization, which takes place before implantation in a woman's uterus.
Alabama's Supreme Court rightly understood that unborn babies generated through IVF are not property. They are children who must be treated with the same level of protection and dignity afforded all humans.
IVF is the manufacturing of babies — individuals with their own unique DNA, fully human. IVF itself is unethical because it treats these human beings as "property" or "commodities" — to be used, suspended, accepted, or killed at the whim of a doctor, a clinic, or, sadly, even the parent. IVF is the moral Wild West of modern medicine and is ripe for regulation.
European nations — including Germany with its 1990 Embryo Protection Law and Italy with its 2004 Medically Assisted Reproduction Law — have already implemented measures to protect snowflake babies.
Dr. Elizabeth Rex, who is a former adjunct professor of Catholic Bioethics who is currently serving as an associate scholar at the Charlotte Lozier Institute, has stated, "We can learn valuable lessons from many other nations in Europe who have previously wrestled with the very lucrative and powerful IVF industry and who have successfully enacted restrictive IVF laws to protect IVF embryos from harm and death at the hands of IVF doctors and research scientists."
Dr. Rex explained that several countries have successfully banned the eugenic testing and freezing of pre-implantation IVF embryos and that have banned the non-reproductive IVF creation of human embryos for destructive scientific research and experimentation.
Some of the restrictions included limiting IVF access only to medically verified infertile married couples. Other restrictions have included limiting the total number of IVF embryos conceived to a maximum of two or three, with the requirement of implanting all of them in the mother's womb and the strict prohibition of any pregnancy "reductions," should multiple embryos viably implant.
As a faithful Catholic bioethicist, Rex concluded, "Pope Benedict XVI and the Italian bishops publicly defended Italy's Medically Assisted Reproductive Law when it was threatened by a vote to revoke it back in 2005. We, too, need to pass legislation in all 50 states to strictly regulate what IVF can and cannot do, just as many other nations have courageously done."
According to the Department of Health and Human Services, in 2021, approximately 2.3% of all babies born were conceived through IVF — over 86,000 children. As such, there could be as many as 1 million embryos created through IVF in a single year.
Parents using IVF generally don't understand what's occurring. We must place a moratorium on IVF and certainly embryo freezing while protecting these remaining frozen embryos.
Emotions run high as opinions regarding IVF are mingled with deep parental urges. Many couples turn to IVF to deal with fertility problems, and many children have been born through IVF.
To be clear, if you were born through IVF, you are fully and equally human. But parents considering IVF, I urge you as a pastor and bioethicist to consider other alternatives — such as embryo adoption, one embryo at a time.
The best option for these potentially homeless embryos is embryo adoption. A couple engaging in embryo adoption saves the life of a child.
Either due to widespread infertility, one-child policies, or the culture's perception of children as a financial burden rather than a blessing, there are fewer women and they are having fewer babies, which, in turn, is leading us into a severe population decline from which we may not be able to recover. Currently, the United States, the European Union, and even Russia and China lack the fertility rates needed to replace their populations.
For those who are struggling with infertility or are very concerned about the problem of over 1 million frozen unborn children, many of whom are truly orphans or have been abandoned by their biological parents and are available for adoption, I encourage you to consider embryo adoption. Christianity Today rightly identified the surplus of frozen embryos as the modern orphan crisis.
Go to the National Embryo Donation Center or the Embryo Adoption Awareness Center to learn more about this unique opportunity to give a "snowflake baby" the warmth and love of a forever adoptive family.
The ethical and sociopolitical issues surrounding the treatment of snowflake babies are complex. But here are two hard truths: The nations have a baby shortage; the world needs more humans; and over 1 million babies need rescue.
The Rev. Jim Harden, CEO of CompassCare, an anti-abortion medical network based in Buffalo, New York, is married with 10 children. He passionately exposes unequal enforcement of the law and immoral public policy. Read more of the Rev. Jim Harden's Reports — Here.