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Jim and Susanne are facing a modern moral dilemma. Desperate for a baby after struggling with infertility for eight years, they agreed to try in vitro fertilization with embryo transfer (IVF-ET). Multiple eggs were surgically harvested from Susanne's ovaries and then fertilized with Jim's sperm in the lab.

Three of the resulting embryos were implanted in Susanne's uterus in the hope that at least one would grow into a baby. The seven remaining embryos were frozen (cryopreserved) for later implantation attempts, if needed.

Surprise—Jim and Susanne are the proud parents of triplets, two girls and a boy. According to the Center for Applied Reproductive Science, triplets are unusual but not unheard of. Typically when three embryos are implanted, would-be parents can expect at best one baby. There is about a 20 percent chance of twins and a 5 percent chance of triplets, depending on the age of the couple.

Jim and Susanne are ecstatic with their triple blessing—and a bit frantic. Believing they have a full quiver, they desire no more children. They wonder, What do we do with the human life we have left on ice?

Jim and Susanne are not alone. More than 400,000 frozen embryos are stored in clinics across the United States. No one knows how long frozen embryos retain their viability, but children have been born from embryos stored five to ten years.

A significant number of these embryos belong to believers. Many couples like Jim and Susanne have considered donating the embryos to the clinic storing them. But there is a hitch. The clinic offers no guarantee that recipients of their embryos will share Jim and Susanne's Christian faith.

"As Christians," Jim says, "it would grieve us to think that children we helped bring into this world would be raised in a non-Christian home and perhaps be lost for eternity."

Jim and Susanne and countless others who have created frozen embryos sitting in high-tech storage have three options:

Allow the clinic to destroy the embryos. In our culture, where embryos are not viewed as human life, such destruction is perfectly acceptable. For believers like Jim and Susanne, however, such a solution is abhorrent. Susanne says, "We agree with the philosophy of [Dr. Seuss's] Horton the Elephant, 'A person's a person no matter how small.'"

Allow the embryos to remain in storage indefinitely. This is not a life-honoring approach either. Unfortunately, according to Ron Stoddart, founder of the Snowflakes embryo adoption program in California, this is the approach that most Christian couples seem to be taking.

"Most couples want to avoid making a decision about their embryos," Stoddart says, "so they just keep paying their clinic a yearly fee to keep them in frozen storage."

Donate the embryos to another infertile couple so their embryos have a chance at life. Without doubt, this option is the most attractive for many Christians. Christians like Jim and Susanne, however, will want to make sure that their embryos are donated to couples who will raise their offspring to know the Lord.

Thankfully, there are Christian physicians and at least two national organizations that gladly honor the requests of donors to find believing couples for their embryos. One of these organizations is Nightlight Christian Adoptions in Southern California. Nightlight began the Snowflakes embryo adoption program. Why Snowflakes? As their brochure puts it, "Each frozen embryo is a beautiful, unique, fragile creation of God."

Stoddart adds, "An embryo is not a potential human life—it is human life with potential." Through the Snowflakes program, genetic parents can choose adopting parents who will meet their religious standards and values. Couples can expect to pay $6,000-$9,000 for an embryo adoption through Snowflakes.

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July 2004, Vol. 48, No. 7