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"This report reveals the tragedy that clinics are freezing many more human embryos than they ever intend to implant in mothers," Stevens said in a prepared statement. "This practice is unethical and diminishes the inestimable value of these precious, young human lives."

Gilbert Meilaender, professor of Christian ethics at Valparaiso University, said the fate of frozen embryos is just one moral problem with IVF. Another is how it encourages people to see an embryo "as a product that we can do whatever we like with."

"We haven't been careful enough," said Meilaender, who is a member of the President's Council on Bioethics. "It isn't sufficient to say that getting a baby is a good thing."

Other Christians are encouraging adoption as a way out of the dilemma. They point to the large numbers of infertile couples who could be helped—by some estimates, as many as 6 million people. So far, the response has been small.

The Snowflakes embryo adoption program, run by Nightlight Christian Adoptions in Fullerton, California, has 121 genetic, or donor, families matched with 82 adoptive parents. To date, 18 families have given birth in the program, which began five years ago. Another 16 babies are due this year.

Few states regulate the practice. In 2001, President Bush signed a bill providing $900,000 to promote embryo adoptions. The Christian Medical Association (CMA) is working with Keenan and the Baptist Women's Hospital of Knoxville to create a National Embryo Adoption Center. Couples and fertility clinics will be able to send embryos earmarked for donation to the center.

The CMA's Stevens said he fears proponents of embryonic stem-cell research will spin the new study to push for making more embryos available for research. In 2001, President Bush signed an executive order barring the creation of any more stem-cell lines from discarded frozen human embryos.

De Solenni of Family Research Council said, "Those who put all of their eggs in the embryonic stem-cell basket are desperate for more funding and for breakthroughs."

Stevens and de Solenni call for more regulation on IVF clinics. "There are regulations about what size a hospital room has to be, but you can make as many embryos as you want and destroy as many embryos as you want," Stevens said. "I think that is just unconscionable."

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See also today's editorial on this topic: "Souls on Ice | The costs of in vitro fertilization are moral and spiritual—not just financial."

The RAND Corporation's report and the May 8 Washington Post article that broke the story are both available online.

Christianity Today's Life Ethics archive and the Science Pages of our sister publication Books & Culture have more perspective on bioethics. For current news on Fertility and Pregnancy, see Yahoo full coverage.

CT's earlier coverage of frozen embryos and fertility treatments includes:

Biotech Babies | How far should Christian couples go in the quest for a child of their own? (Dec. 7, 1988)

No Room in the Womb? | Couples with high-risk pregnancies face the 'selective reduction' dilemma (Dec. 6, 1999)

Embryo 'Adoption' Matches Donors and Would-be Parents | 'Snowflake' program is only of its kind in dealing with leftover fertilized eggs (Nov. 2, 1999)

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July 2003, Vol. 47, No. 7