National Embryo Donation Center Seeks Families to Adopt Special Needs Kids

Knoxville, TN -- Couples who have gone through fertility treatments such as in vitro fertilization (IVF), often have excess embryos cryopreserved or frozen for future family building. When these couples complete their families and embryos remain, they are faced with the daunting task of deciding what to do with their embryos.

Statistics estimate nearly half a million embryos are currently cryopreserved in the United States. Many believe embryo donation and adoption is the most life honoring solution to this difficult choice, including the National Embryo Donation Center, based in Tennessee.

Embryos regarded as special consideration include those whose genetic family reveals potential for a known genetic defect.

“If a donor couple has a child that has a genetic defect, for example, then the embryos become special needs embryos,” said Carol Sommerfelt, Embryologist at the NEDC.

Additionally, if donated embryos initially appear to have a clear genetic history but are used and a child results with a genetic defect, then any remaining embryos from that embryo donor also become special needs embryo, she added.

Other embryos classified as special consideration include embryos that may have undergone Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD) which revealed a genetic defect, and those whose genetic parents tested positive for sexually transmitted diseases.

To date, however, no STD has been contracted through donated embryos. Whether an embryo has a genetic defect or a potential for a defect, the NEDC believes all embryos deserve a chance for life and hopes to find adoptive families for all their donated embryos, including those with special needs.

“Of the 1200 embryos stored at the NEDC, 14 “sets” of embryos from 14 donor couples are designated as special consideration and are needing to be adopted,” said Clydene Elkins, NEDC Patient Coordinator. “We work very hard to assure all embryos are placed in good homes,” Elkins added.

Family Guy Will Bait Sarah Palin Again With Return of Down Syndrome Character
by Jennifer Armstrong of Pop Watch

Hollywood, CA -- You know the best way to get Family Guy to bring back a guest character? Protest vociferously in the media — it helps if you're a publicity-magnet ex-VP candidate — so as to create a rather grand controversy. Remember that girl Chris went on a date with during a February episode, the one who has Down syndrome and whose mom is the former governor of Alaska?

And remember how Sarah Palin, in real life the mother of an infant boy with Down syndrome, fought back with a Facebook post and media appearances, calling the episode a “kick in the gut”? And how her daughter, Bristol, called the Family Guy writers “heartless jerks”?

Well, congratulations, Palins — you've earned Ellen, the demanding girl with Down syndrome, a repeat performance on the topical Fox hit.

Creator Seth MacFarlane told a Comic-Con audience that she'd be making an encore “at some point … despite all the Palin business.”

Oh, that coy MacFarlane, pretending it isn't precisely because of the Palin business that Ellen’s getting more screen time! Though I still think the episode in question was Family Guy‘s twisted version of inclusiveness, it also clearly set out to bait the Palins — and got exactly the publicity it wanted.

The question is whether Palin will respond again, or leave well enough alone this time. Say what you will about Palin’s politics, but you've got to respect her for speaking her mind — and if there’s ever a time to be on her side, it’s when she’s defending disabled kids.

Pro-Life Advocates Head Acorss Canada With Walking Trip to Highlight Abortion

Ottawa, Canada -- A six-member group of religious students are walking across Canada to elevate discussion about what they say is the need to strike down abortion in this country.

The group began the walk on the campus of the University of British Columbia in May and intend to walk as far as Gateneau, Que., before heading back to Ottawa for a rally Aug. 14 on Parliament Hill.

To maintain that pace, members of the group take turns walking at night, as well as during the day, said walk leader Brother Paul John Weber, a Franciscan monk from a Nova Scotia, during a stop in Sudbury on the weekend.

The walk has allowed the group to meet and talk to all kinds of people, from motorists who stop out of curiosity to other cross-Canada walkers who are carrying their own cause and message across the country.

"It's been amazing," said Weber. Even people who are opposed to the abolition of abortion have stopped to discuss the issue with members of the group, he said

Read the full story here.

 

New York Comptroller Candidate Tom DiNapoli Gets NARAL Endorsement

Albany, NY -- New York candidate for Comptroller Tom DiNapoli received the endorsement of NARAL today, and took time to hit his GOP opponent, Harry Wilson, on his views on abortion.

"It is dismaying and disturbing that Harry Wilson, who has been endorsed by the Conservative Party in New York, does not have a public position on this extremely important issue," he said in a release. "I am forced to believe that he shares the Conservative Party's stance in staunch opposition to current abortion laws."

Kelli Conlin, President of NARAL New York, said that Wilson did not return the group's questionnaire.

Durango, Colorado Group to Lead Protest of Hospital Working With Abortionist

Durango, CO (LifeNews.com) -- The local pro-life group LifeGuard will hold a press conference on Thursday to divulge the details of the ongoing relationship between Catholic hospital Mercy Regional Medical Center and abortion practitioner Dr. Grossman.

"A Catholic Hospital that grants full privileges to a Doctor who brutally murders babies every week is NOT a Catholic Hospital," stated Joe Scheidler, National Director of the Pro-Life Action League. "Mercy Regional can no longer ignore this issue. We hope to send a clear message -- we want Dr. Grossman out of there."

"Catholic parents who come to Mercy Regional have a right to expect that their child will be received by the hands of a physician who holds all life sacred -- not the hands that earlier that week held the instruments of abortion to destroy the life of some other innocent baby," continued Scheidler.

"The presence of an abortion provider on the staff of a Catholic hospital is contrary to Catholic social teaching and Catholic moral values. We plead with Mercy to exhort abortionist Grossman to give up his abortion career or resign from the hospital staff," he said.

 

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