From LifeDate - Fall 2007.

Lutherans For Life has a position statement favoring embryonic adoption. We arrived at this based on the fact that in God’s pro-creative biological process, a human being comes into existence at conception. This is supported by the science of embryology as reflected in textbooks used in medical schools. Scripture affirms this biological fact through the incarnation of Jesus Christ. Jesus began His life as a human being from the moment of His conception as an embryo in the Virgin Mary.

Jesus’ conception as a holy embryo was necessitated by our conception as an unholy embryo. "Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me" (Psalm 51:5 NIV). Thus, every time we speak in the Apostle’s Creed "conceived by the Holy Spirit," we not only attest to the divinity of Jesus at the moment of conception, but also to our humanity from that moment. Our sinfulness testifies to our humanity at conception. Jesus’ incarnation testifies to our humanity at conception.

In this sense, then, there is little difference between adopting an embryo and adopting an infant or older child. Neither our size nor our location determines our humanness. If we oppose the killing of human embryos because they are human beings, why should we oppose adopting human embryos?

One concern, however, comes from the source of these embryos. During the normal in vitro fertilization (IVF) process, many eggs are retrieved and many embryos are formed. Those not used are frozen. This presents a problem for the Christian. As my good friend and seminary professor Dr. Robert Weise likes to say, "You can’t parent a frozen embryo." Christian parents conceive children to be brought up in "the instruction and discipline of the Lord" (Ephesians 6:4).

The concern, then, is this: Will the knowledge that unused embryos will be adopted lead couples to have more embryos frozen? This is a legitimate concern. That is why I chose the title I did for this article. Instead of framing the issue in terms of "adopting embryos," it seems more realistic to frame it in terms of "rescuing embryos" through adoption. Such an approach recognizes their plight of being children without homes, facing certain death, and with no one to parent them. In other words, these are not "cute children" who need adopting. They are children placed in peril who need rescuing. Maybe talking about it this way would help provide these tiny children with adoptive parents without encouraging biological parents to freeze their tiny children.

If you want to study this issue in more depth, Dr. Weise has an excellent article in the July 2007 Concordia Journal. He covers the biological, medical, legal, and theological aspects of embryo adoption.

You may also want to learn more about the actual adoption (rescue) process at