In Vitro Fertilization, IVF Quotes
Hitler’s Germany promptly passed the law which was the beginning of their program of human extermination and the Holocaust.
One of the extreme religious fundamentalists in the Congress, Brownback was referring to Federally funded medical research which uses embryonic stem cells. The cells are generated from in vitro fertilization procedures and potentially if implanted in the womb of a woman could produce a child. Several cells are produced by the fertilization process but typically only one or two is needed. So some religious extremists believe that just because the cell has the potential for human life, it is human life. This is the same logic which opposes birth control on the grounds that sperm and egg cells are incipient life forms. It was as late as 1973 that bans on birth control devices were declared unconstitutional be the Supreme Court.
At the time the president made this quotation there were over 400,000 frozen embryos stored in fertility clinics across the country that were no longer necessary for the couples who had created them and for which no other couples could be found. Each costs about $2,000 a year to maintain in a viable state. Some are destroyed as no longer necessary and others are given to scientists for research. Most just stay in frozen storage with no prospect of ever being brought to term.
