tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3590966175110441391.post4658897029757573115..comments2023-06-26T03:08:40.549-07:00Comments on Tomorrow's Table: Farewell! Thou art too dear for my possessing*Pamela Ronaldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08905736049638342587noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3590966175110441391.post-63592257820065185792009-02-11T15:43:00.000-08:002009-02-11T15:43:00.000-08:00thanks for the lovely commentthanks for the lovely commentPamela Ronaldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08905736049638342587noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3590966175110441391.post-81190438884288418792009-02-11T07:18:00.000-08:002009-02-11T07:18:00.000-08:00I am such a parent. A father who could not have ch...I am such a parent. A father who could not have children naturally, and a wife who embraced the difficult journey through IVF. <BR/><BR/>My own gametes were successfully extracted, essentially while splitting me open with local anesthetic. My wife enudured months of shots to regulate hormones in a psuedo-precise fasion- almost tipping toward some scary abyss that would risk her own life. <BR/><BR/>In the end, she brought forth a half-dozen viable eggs. My contribution was also viable- three were fertilized, two embryos implanted... and one joyous lifetime of a child resulted. <BR/><BR/>It was all so very academic, until I saw the tiny heartbeat on the sonogram, and began- for the first time- to reconcile what I thought was life with what was staring me in the face, and living inside my wife. He was born and swept away to make sure he was breathing okay, and minutes later a tiny hand gripped my finger and I was never the same again.<BR/><BR/>Do I think of the gametes remaining somewhere, frozen, in storage, that my wife and I produced? Yes sometimes... and I think of the expense, the difficulty and the risks. Was it worth it? Absolutely. Would I do it again? Maybe. Do I think of those gametes as "children that might have been?" Not really, unless they were in fact embryos, already growing. If that were so- it would pain me greatly to treat human embryonic life with such disregard. Is it not life simply because I don't recognize it? Can't hold it or talk to it? <BR/> <BR/>I see them as pieces of our humanity, and regardless of all of the debate about stem cells, I think we must decide where to draw the line. It's never simple, and the ramifications of such harvest and research blur the line between life and matter. <BR/><BR/>Personally I don't think that line should become blurred... it should remain distinct. We have other means, other research and other ideas for how and where to use non-embryonic stem cells. But that's just me. When I see my son smiling and exploring, I can't help but wonder what might not have been at all.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com