Vulnerable, Valuable Human Life

A story of embryo adoption

Politicians and organizations in favor of unfettered embryonic stem cell research will often claim that the human embryos slated to be killed for research will just be thrown away anyway. Mike and Nicole Bell of Traverse City, Michigan, want to let people know there is another life-affirming option for frozen human embryos. That option is adoption.

On January 13, 2006, Nicole gave birth to twins, a girl named Paige and a boy named Mike Jr., whom the Bells adopted as embryos.

Before adopting Paige and Mike Jr. as embryos, adoption had previously played an important role in the Bells’ lives. Mike was adopted as a child and the Bells’ first child, Leah, was adopted as an infant through traditional adoption. Nicole and Mike had heard about embryo adoption a couple of years ago but hadn’t explored the option until Nicole discovered the web site of the National Embryo Donation Center.

The National Embryo Donation Center (NEDC) is a non-profit center at Knoxville, Tennessee’s Baptist Hospital for Women that helps both parents looking to donate embryos and couples looking to adopt embryos. The NEDC is endorsed by the Christian Medical Association and is affiliated with Bethany Christian Services, headquartered in Grand Rapids, Michigan. They offer both anonymous and open embryo adoption.

After researching embryo adoption more thoroughly, Mike and Nicole decided they would work through the embryo adoption process. After being accepted into the program and looking through about a dozen profiles, Mike and Nicole chose embryos who were donated by an anonymous couple. The embryos were eventually transferred into Nicole’s womb. Of the three embryos who were transferred, all three implanted, but one child miscarried at around 5 weeks’ gestational age.

Not all embryo transfers are as successful as the Bells’. A large percentage of embryos don’t survive the unfreezing process and the NEDC’s web site notes there is only a “20‑25 percent chance of pregnancy per transfer.” Embryo adoption is the only life-affirming option for human embryos who have been frozen and are not given the opportunity to live by their biological parents. The other options include inevitable death or being frozen indefinitely which will also eventually lead to death.

Nicole would encourage couples interested in adoption to explore embryo adoption as an option. She felt it was a rewarding process that blessed both the donors, who let their embryonic children have a chance at life, and the adoptive parents, who were able to successfully bring two children to birth.

In May of 2005, President Bush met with the families of 21 children who were adopted as embryos, and towards the end of his talk he said, “The children here today remind us that there is no such thing as a spare embryo. Every embryo is unique and genetically complete, like every other human being. And each of us started out our life this way. These lives are not raw material to be exploited, but gifts. And I commend each of the families here today for accepting the gift of these children and offering them the gift of your love.”

Paige Bell and Mike Bell Jr. should be constant reminders to us, too, that there is no such thing as a spare embryo and that the life of every human being, born and unborn, is a precious gift.

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