Speaking as an Adult Embryonic-American, I'm damn glad to be here.
In politics, it always helps to put a face on a cause.
Opponents of embryonic stem-cell research also have found their face -- 21 of them. They are the children who helped President Bush show what a frozen embryo has the potential to become.
"The children here today remind us that there is no such thing as a spare embryo," Mr. Bush said last month at the White House.
The embryos that would become these children were created through in vitro fertilization and placed in frozen storage. They were donated by couples who no longer needed them and implanted into a woman who became their mother.
So far, 81 "snowflake" babies have been born through embryo adoption, the president said.
"We hear a lot of rhetoric that these are just clumps of cells," said David Prentice, a senior fellow at the conservative Family Research Council. "The snowflake kids are very effective in showing that they are very young humans that need to be given their chance for development."
Over the past two decades, since the first "test-tube baby" was born, an estimated 400,000 frozen embryos have accumulated in more than 400 fertility clinics across the country. What to do with those frozen embryos has become a matter of intense debate.
(Thanks to the AP via The Washington Times)
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