BAPTIST Foundation gets FEDERAL grant for "embryo adoption awareness"

[Bluebear]

Contact: Di Oakley, 865-405-5354, [e-mail]; Margie Shealy of the Christian Medical Association, 423-844-1047, [e-mail]; www.embryodonation.org

KNOXVILLE, Tenn., Jan. 16 /Christian Wire Service/ -- The National Embryo Donation Center announced today that it is a partner in a $309,000 embryo adoption awareness grant, funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

The Baptist Health System Foundation in Knoxville, TN, which serves as the primary recipient of the HHS grant, will work with the National Embryo Donation Center and the Christian Medical & Dental Association to educate the public about embryo adoption.

The genetic parents determine their own level of involvement in the adoption process and whether or not to remain anonymous. After completing the embryo adoption agreement and a home study, the embryos are transferred to the adoptive mother, allowing her to experience pregnancy and the birth of their adopted child. However, in the case of embryo adoption, the adoptive parents are recognized as the birth parents of the child.

Jeffrey Keenan, MD, medical director for the National Embryo Donation Center, noted, "This grant will help reach and inform those families who are facing a dilemma regarding their stored embryos. It allows parents to make a life-affirming decision about their unused embryos while offering the miracle of childbirth to a couple who has experienced the anguish of infertility."

http://www.earnedmedia.org/cma0116.htm

[beam me up scottie]

1. arrrrrrrrrrrrrrgggggghhhhhhh

I was hoping this was from the Onion.

I want out of here.

Now.

Sane people do not live in places where the government is allowed to give my money to faux causes like this.

[Bluebear]

2. Why do you hate the 'miracle of childbirth'?

:crazy:

[beam me up scottie]

5. People are HOMELESS!

People are going to bed HUNGRY!

People are SICK and DYING due to lack of adequate health care!

And they give money to christo-fascists who want us to adapt fucking snowflakes?

[Nikki Stone 1]

3. Transfer of taxpayer dollars to religious proseletizers.

This has GOT to be unconstitutional.

[Bluebear]

6. It doesn't seem to matter anymore.

The President, after all, can break the law and go unpunished.

[Nikki Stone 1]

15. This is not America

America has been stolen by Bushco

[gulfcoastliberal]

49. Remember, this idea (Fed $ to churches) came from the DLC charter.

I think it's called the "Hyde Park" something. I don;t feel like dirtying myself going over there again - but if you can stomach it, check it out.

So the repukes "stole" this insane idea from the dlc dems.

[Charlie Brown]

4. They don't want there tax dollars used to promte abortion, homosexuality

but have no problem taking ours for their own blatantly partisan projects.

Hypocrites.

[Maru Kitteh]

28. Charlie you are right about every single thing you said but one little

little thing - I really hate to be nit-picky but it's THEIR tax dollars, not there tax dollars.

They throw their tax dollars over there. Sorry. It's like fingernails on a chalkboard for me.

[SPKrazy]

7. Baptist Health System foundation owns hospitals, clinics

and health care facilities nationwide.

Big damned deal that they are doing embryo adoption.

It is a big thing to a lot of people doing IVF to not just destroy the embryos that they don't use, and laws on the books require similar types of evaluations for adoptees of embryos.

I applied for a job in Denver working with an embryo adoption agency. It has become big business.

lots of embryos that don't get used.

[beam me up scottie]

11. NO IT'S A BIG DAMNED DEAL THAT THEY ARE USING MY MONEY TO DO IT.

Go peddle fucking snowflakes on your own dime.

[SPKrazy]

22. My Money Too

But what is wrong with Embryo adoption?

[beam me up scottie]

32. Are you KIDDING?

There are thousands of kids DYING in this country for lack of care.

Millions are hungry and abused.

Millions more suffer in silence as they drift through the maze of social services and foster homes.

Rich women don't need to use my tax dollars to fund their obsession with having a blue-eyed, flaxen haired, white cherub of their own.

And furthermore, this tactic is being used by the right wing to set a precedent establishing rights for embryos, not because they give a shit about the stupid snowflakes.

[Maat]

35. And my kid sister - who works for Social Services in O.C. ..

is putting veterans who just returned from service in Iraq on aid .. because once they get out of the service - they can't find a job.

And, by the way, the aid that assists middle-income families in adopting (their funding gets cutoff once their fos-dopt parent status ends with their adoption finalization, unless special aid is obtained) is being cut, per my buddies in Social Services.

An, on and on ..

[Bluebear]

37. Sorry, those servicemen are already born.

No spare dough for them. :eyes:

[Maat]

58. Exactly (n/t)!

[beam me up scottie]

38. It just keeps getting worse, doesn't it?

I really don't know what is wrong with people.

I have enough sympathy for everyone in the world who is hurting.
Too much sometimes-it's overwhelming.

Why do some people only have enough for embryos, fetuses and persecuted white christian Americans?

[The Doctor.]

46. Similar cognitive function?

-Just a guess.

[beam me up scottie]

51. ~

:)

[Maat]

57. Yes, that's my problem too!

I hurt a little every time I hear about a problem like this.

Maybe we are too idealistic - hoping for a world that is not overpopulated, in which every need is met.

I know THAT will never happen, though.

[beam me up scottie]

62. I can't even dream that big anymore.

What bothers me the most is that people can't SEE what we do.

Or if they see it, they don't care.

I work with those kind of people every day.

Blatting about the evil of abortion and millions of "babies" murdered by their mothers while turning a blind eye to the suffering in their own back yards.

I told one guy today christians are no better than anyone else (he likes to quote mutant freeperesque scripture).

He was shocked (I'm still new) but not as shocked as he'd be if I really told him what I think of him and his brothers-in-hypocrisy.

[Maat]

64. I understand.

Take care! We need to keep on fighting the good fight.

[beam me up scottie]

66. You too, Maat.

If it wasn't for people like you and others like you on DU, I would have given up long ago.

It helps knowing I'm not completely alone, even if it feels like I am in this town filled with fetus billboards and fundie hate speech.

[Maat]

67. We will address religious extemism in this country.

Take care!

[SPKrazy]

74. $309,000 grant to educate the public about embryo adoption

give it a rest

and I don't understand the hostility towards people that were "snowflakes"

Having worked with an IVF clinic doing pre-IVF counseling I can tell you that there are lots of people out there that don't want to destroy embryos that they create.

So what do you do with a bunch of frozen embryos? Stem cell research would be one thing.

But those who wish to have their embryos adopted should have a way to do that.

And not just "rich people" use adopted embryos. Try lots of people who can't create their own eggs, therefore no embryos, also want to adopt embryos.

[Name removed]

77. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[SPKrazy]

78. Hey, no need for the ad hominem personal attacks!

Don't be an ass!

I am telling you that having worked in an IVF/fertility clinic, that there is a DEMAND for embryos that exists out there.

So you can take your Arthur Caplan article and take it with a grain of salt.

[beam me up scottie]

79. I get so damned tired of coming home and seeing their lies posted

on DU.

I fight the ignorance every day at work, why should I have to fight it on a liberal internet forum as well?

These people are working to take away my reproductive rights because of THEIR religious beliefs.

I take that seriously and I don't hold back when I feel threatened.


If you aren't one of them, fine, you're an ally and I apologize.

But if you agree with their reasons for doing this and you actively support them, you're my enemy.

[SPKrazy]

80. I don't want to take away your reproductive rights

or anyone elses.

[beam me up scottie]

81. Okay then.

:blush:

I apologize for lumping you in with the Snowflakists.

[SPKrazy]

84. Okay, tell me what this neural gourmet is?

I went to the site, it looked like a blog.

Is there info on it about "brain food"?

Just curious. I now work with patients who have Alzheimer's disease

[beam me up scottie]

85. Okay, now I really feel bad.

Neural Gourmet is a community for (borrowing heavily from our mission statement) modernists, progressives, freethinkers and humanists.

If you are one or all of the above (and I think you are) you're more than welcome to post and contribute.

Here's a link to the mission statement http://www.neuralgourmet.com/about

It's a new site but Salvorhardin has worked his fingers to the bone trying to create a home for us.

I think he's done an outstanding job, myself.:D

[SoCalDem]

99. Um.. Notepad...pencil..filing cabinet..liquid nitrogen tanks

a basic database..

check here..

save embyros indefintely......
let someone else have 'em.....
donate to science......


send my $309,000.00 to:

street address......123 anywhere ave
city/town......Fundyville
state.......confusion
country...gawdblesstheusa

[Bluebear]

12. If it is such big business it doesn't need a Federal subsidy nt

[SPKrazy]

23. That could be true bluebear

but I don't mind my tax dollars going for this.

I'd much rather they spent it on this than on war.

[FreedomAngel82]

31. So what about

Katrina victims and other poor people? What about all the children who need to be adopted and don't have homes? What about them?

[SPKrazy]

73. I have no problem with my tax dollars being spent on all of the

things you mention

in fact I'd prefer it.

I don't really understand why tax dollars are needed on this, unless they are trying to make it easier to adopt an embryo (aka cheaper)

$309,000 is a drop in the bucket for anything. And it is just to make the public aware that it is possible to adopt embryos.

I'll tell you right now though, it ain't cheap, and there is no guarantee that you will be able to sustain an embryo that has been frozen as a) not all embryos will ever succeed in adhering to the womb; b) freezing can preserve them, but they don't always unfreeze well.

[Maraya1969]

48. I'd much rather they spend it on health care for the millions of living

Americans who have none.

[FreedomAngel82]

30. I remember sometime last year

there was a story on "Law and Order SVU" that this "doctor" was going around and telling women false stories (like they had a cold or something like that) to keep them from having abortions and to where they would go over the point in time where they could get one. One girl tried to get one and he lied to her "to save the babies" and she ended up killing her baby and she tried to get her boyfriend to kill her. This reminded me of that. *sigh*

[me b zola]

90. If it is such a big deal

Then perhaps they should not be fertalizing a dozen or so eggs in the hope of achieving one pregnancy. I am sick to death of all of this faux morality crap coming from the rw. The number of LIVE children who need a home & parents is staggering. It is mind-numbing how people who claim to be people of 'faith & values' would value a clump of cells more than the very real needs of very live children.:argh:

[Nobody]

8. Beautiful! Everyone wins

Egg donor biomom can get rid of a pregnancy she doesn't want, someone else gets the embryo and bears the risk and the child.

[Bluebear]

10. And we need tax dollars used for this why?

?

[SPKrazy]

24. Highly unlikely scenario

egg harvests are usually done with precision and fertility drugs

I've never heard of an "embryo harvest" except I suppose you could call an abortion that, however an abortion destroys an embryo.

[Book Lover]

9. Pregnancy & childbirth are the smallest fraction of raising a child

I no longer care if this is insensitive - from one who knows, going through the 9 months and the "miracle" of childbirth are nothing. It is not important. It doesn't make you a real or full woman. It ends much more sooner than you think, and then you have a new person to guide for the rest of your life - that's your proof of parenthood. This fetishization of pregnancy sickens me.

[beam me up scottie]

13. BB, what the fuck is wrong with people?

They see nothing wrong with this?

I suppose we shouldn't think they're trying to establish rights for embryos, too.

Nah, the baptists wouldn't do that, they really CARE about the embryos...

[Bluebear]

17. They care about them until they are born.

Then they are on their own!

[beam me up scottie]

33. Exactly.

Fundie:

"Stupid welfare queens, always getting knocked up, why should I have to pay for them to have more brown kids...blah blah blah"

Compassionate Conservatism on display.

[Horse with no Name]

14. Let's see

The average mobile home costs about $20k.
Setup and cleanup costs for a lot would probably run around $5k.
So you figure at $25k, that around 12-13 families with LIVE children could be settled into their new homes on the Gulf Coast.
I hate these bastards!

[beam me up scottie]

16. Ah, some perspective !

Thank you, I was soooooooooooooo angry I couldn't focus.

I still am.:mad:

[Bluebear]

18. Indeed, thanks to horse! nt

[Horse with no Name]

20. Big picture

If ALL the pork was converted to housing, there would be thousands of kids that were tucked in their beds tonight instead of stuck in a cold tent in the rain.
http://www.weather.com/weather/local/USMS0033?from=search_city
It should be a crime. Really.

[beam me up scottie]

41. It warns people to bring their pets inside.

I love animals, more so than most people I know, but how ignorant and callous do you have to be to not see the moral dilemma here?

[Horse with no Name]

43. It shouldn't even be moral dilemma

It should be moral outrage.
Therein lies our problem because it is not.

[beam me up scottie]

45. And the baptists got a grant to raise awareness for embryo adoptions.

Not even to fund the adoptions, but to raise awareness.

There are no words.

[Horse with no Name]

47. To raise awareness for the plight of the poor

lost unfortunate embryos.
Who gives a fuck about the living and breathing children whose school lunches got cut out to pay for this awareness.
I agree. There are no words.

[CatholicEdHead]

19. Are these the "snowflake" folks?

[Bluebear]

21. Indeedy. nt

[DanCa]

61. werent the snowflake babies frauds thought?

I saw several threads about it on DU.

[Nikki Stone 1]

25. But, will they buy those embryos armor when they join the Nat'l Guard ?

That's the real question of life or death.

[barb162]

26. You know, I hate to bring up overpopulation

but with all the people starving on this planet....

sigh

[SPKrazy]

27. They could and should be fed

there is plenty of money to do it

Why isn't there an outrage about it?

[barb162]

29. I just don't get it, I really don't

I see water,food and other resources running out in many countries and there seems to be a taboo against suggesting people on the planet putting a kibosh on reproduction. I wonder how bad things have to get before the two words "population control" gets back in the popular lexicon.

[beam me up scottie]

34. Because we're too busy saving embryos to care about kids?

:banghead:

[Maat]

36. Yes, you are quite correct, BMUS.

And yet, when I talked to a certain conservative relative of mine about adopting, she reminded me "where those kids came from."

(Showing remarkable sensitivity about how my beloved daughter came to me)

I guess that SOMEONE ELSE can go through the adoption process.

[beam me up scottie]

39. grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Sounds like my ex-mother-in-law.

She bragged about how "christian" she was because she befriended blacks, latinos and others that were lower in status than Herself.

She always labeled them, you know, calling them her "black friend, Anna" and her "Puerto Rican friend Maria", so that everyone would know what an outstanding human being she was.

I loathe bigots.

And I have nothing but admiration for people like you who see A CHILD when they look at kids like your daughter, not a fashion statement that might clash with the existing color scheme.

[Maat]

56. Well, thanks.

And I appreciate YOUR posts, BMUS.

Thanks for understanding how strongly I feel about this.

[DanCa]

40. There are living human beings without parents in orphanages right now

Do these freaks give a damn about actual kids growin' up in orphanages? These pro blastocyst people are dehumanizing everything. They sicken me.

[NVMojo]

42. don't you just love being taxed to fund a religious belief??

[DanCa]

44. Taxed hell i have parkinson's because these nuts fear fire (stem cell)

Hmm you know thier bible says an eye for an eye. If i am crippled up and cant walk... welll.
Alls I got to say is "riddle me this riddle me that, who's afraid of my big black bat." *taps baseball on his wheel chair.

[kevinbgoode]

50. I think the lesbian couples should line right up. . .

and scare the pants off these crazies. Since they are using federal money, I think more than some hell can be raised about this misuse of funds.

[beam me up scottie]

52. Ya know...

I think you might be on to something there...

Would they rather the embryos kick the proverbial bucket than let homosexual couples adapt them?

[DanCa]

53. I think youve got a point. Hopefully the abramoff scandal shed light on

this groups and the influence that they have on our government. PS do you like my bat idea? :D

[beam me up scottie]

54. Yes I do!

Nothing scares a fundie more than a pissed off christian dude in a wheelchair.

Unless, of course, it's a pissed off christian dude in a wheelchair with a big black bat.:evilgrin:

I wish I knew how to use Photoshop...

[DanCa]

55. lol

that's only cause i dont have a jaw bone of an ass handy. :D Hey that's in the fundie bible too .
:evilgrin: :hug: :loveya:

[beam me up scottie]

60. That's 'cuz the asses are all still using them!

:hug:

[Hell Hath No Fury]

70. Or a nice Muslim family...

:D

See just how long it would take them to sputter some lame excuse on why they are not suitable to raise those precious snowflakes.

[CornField]

59. Wonder what they say to the parents who want to donate theirs to research?

Somehow, I don't think they get the same rosy reception.

Instead of fighting the insanity, I think I'm going to apply for my own grant. Women need a place to go and mourn their discarded eggs every month. I was thinking "Tampax Temple".

BTW, I've been looking at this grant through DHS and trying to figure out if these are faith-based funds. Anyone know for sure?

[beam me up scottie]

63. snort!

Hail!

Another hostile resident of the buy-bull belt!

[DanCa]

65. I think these people took the egg as your child hs homework

a bit too seriously as kids.

[Az_lefty]

68. If we're going to hand out money for silly shit like this...

then I want my share. I propose educating the public concerning fascism, fanaticism the other Right Wing bullshit.
:grr:

[LibertyLover]

69. In principle

I have no particular objection to the idea. I do however object to my tax dollars being used for the purpose because of the obvious religious bias of the organizations involved.

[Bluebear]

72. My sentiments exactly. nt

[progressivebydesign]

71. WTF?? Remember when the media used to report on govt WASTE? n/t

[Fleshdancer]

75. $309,000 of our tax dollars to make people aware of embryo adoption?

can't you just tell every fertility specialist in the country and be done with it? Does it really need over a quarter of a million dollar marketing plan? No wonder we're in debt up to our eyeballs.

[Karenina]

76. Seriously sick shit...

n/t

[Ilsa]

82. That does it. I'm opening my own clinic. I want some of that

federal money for really off-the-wall projects, even if no one really wants them. Or should I say, especially since very few will ever use them. I'm gonna pay myself $100,000 a year for the next three years, park my ass and keep raking the money in until the Dems are in control again.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

83. Hope I'm Not Flamed, But I Don't Really See Any Problem With This.

Politics and idealism from the right aside, I don't see the effort to have people take viable embryos that turn into beautiful children as something I should be against for some reason.

Maybe I'm missing something, I dunno.

[beam me up scottie]

87. It's not the IDEA of embryo adoption that I detest.

It's who's USING it and for what purpose.

If clinics want to pursue federal grants through medical channels in order to help lower income and gay couples adopt embryos, I'll support them.

I will NOT support any more of my tax dollars being used to help the "moral majority" take away my reproductive rights.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

89. If You Are Not Against The Idea, Then I don't see why there is a problem.

That is what the money is being used for. And as far as who gets to adopt, you won't find me agree that we should discriminate against anybody, just because the others are the ones that You like.

[beam me up scottie]

91. My post of the article explaining all this was deleted.

From The problem with ‘embryo adoption’
Why is the government giving money to ‘Snowflakes?’

Snowflakes is run by the Nightlight Christian Adoption agency in Fullerton, Calif. The group has no medical background. They simply believe that every embryo is a baby from the minute it exists in a laboratory dish.

What's the big deal?

So what’s the big deal about a religious group that believes all embryos are children and is trying to find them “adoptive” parents among infertile couples using IVF? Well, actually there is a lot that is wrong.

It’s great that 16 babies were born last year through the Snowflakes program. That makes it seem as if 16 couples had children who might otherwise have not. But that is not really the case. Nearly all infertility clinics offer couples the option of donating their leftover embryos to other couples. All that Snowflakes has done is brought the rhetoric of adoption into the process.

A government sham

The Bush administration and Congress know all these facts, but have nevertheless poured more than $1 million of taxpayer money into the Snowflakes program and others aimed at facilitating “embryo adoption.”

This is a nice way to score points with those who advocate the view that embryos are actual babies and should not be used for research purposes. But it is not the best way to help couples who want to have actual babies.

You can read the rest of it here http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3076556/


These people don't care about embryos.

They would rather see all of them DIE before allowing gay couples to adapt them or scientists to use them for research.

They care about banning abortion.

That's what this is about.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

92. I Still Have No Problem With It.

I don't like their rhetoric and politics, but the act itself of donating embryos for adoption is perfectly ok by me. I don't think condoning the idea or the propagation of it in any way has to mean I or others condone their rhetoric.

We are just not going to see eye to eye on this one, but that's ok. :)

[beam me up scottie]

93. No, we don't see eye to eye on my tax dollars being used to support

a movement that intends to deny me my Constitutional rights.

This is federal money being used to fund the Amerikkkan Taliban's ascent to power.

Or faith based charities, as junior likes to call them.


I have no problem with CLINICS encouraging adoption of embryos because THEY ALREADY DO.

I have a PROBLEM with reichwing fascists pimping said embryos to further their own agenda.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

94. Well Like It Or Not Your Tax Dollars Are Used To Support An Illegal War.

Which is far worse.

I think the idea is worthy of funding, but the politics and idealism isn't.

[beam me up scottie]

95. Since one of my brothers is in Ramadi right now,

I have no problem finding enough rage to scream bloody murder about both issues and plenty of others.

I'm incapable of dismissing the oppression of women by fundamental extremists quite so easily.

That could be because I'm being driven insane by the thought of having to fight this battle yet again, decades after we were first granted our rights because of the blood, sweat and tears shed by the uppity women who came before me.

[Horse with no Name]

88. The problem is

It's a sham. If people want to pour their own money down a rabbit hole, then I have absolutely no problem with it.
I have a problem with the government subsidizing this.
It should be a privately run business.
I don't seek to shut them down. Just let them pay for their own stuff.

[rpgamerd00d]

86. NON-Profit Status :: REVOKED !!!!

Get this info to the IRS!

[Generic Other]

96. Appalling, disgusting, test tube Frankensteinism

Faaa. Phoooee. Gack. Soon they'll just harvest all the desirable eggs in advance!

[beam me up scottie]

97. DON'T

give them any ideas...

I'm only sort of kidding.

[Bluebear]

98. Please.

Eugenics will be 'discovered' to mean 'what He hath ordered' or something.