House moves to allow embryo ‘adoption’
By Ben Smith
bsmith@ajc.com
The state House on Thursday passed a bill that could make Georgia the first state in nation to provide adoption of human embryos.
House Bill 388 passed in a 96 to 66 vote that fell mostly, but not entirely along party lines. Most Republicans voted for it, most Democrats voted against.
State Rep. James Mills (R-Gainesville), the bill’s author, presented the Option to Adoption Act as a safeguard against mothers who agree carry the fetuses of infertile couples from refusing to give up the infants after birth.
Some opponents characterized the bill as a back door attempt to outlaw abortion.
One conservative Republican, state Rep. Bobby Franklin (R-Marietta) argued that the bill amounts “to openly trafficking (embryonic) humans to the adoption market.”
But state Rep. Mike Jacobs (R-Dunwoody), a co-sponsor, disputed both arguments.
“There is no hidden agenda here,” said Jacobs. “This is a good pro-family bill.”
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21 comments Add your comment
cynthia
March 12th, 2009
11:53 am
hello
passed
March 12th, 2009
12:12 pm
Why are republicans so pro-life? They will throw their whole weight in getting stupid laws like this to be passed, but they won’t even blink an eye when they also pass resolution which will end up killing thousands of people without any reason.
Republicans are more worried about a tiny embryo, which has no future unless properly implanted, but will not worry a bit about killing of hundreds on living children and adults.
Bronco
March 12th, 2009
12:23 pm
Has the whole world gone nuts.
mary
March 12th, 2009
1:30 pm
passed – what are you talking about? What resolutions are being passed that will end up killing hundreds of living children and adults? Why am I pro-life? Because I believe life should be protected. If you are “responsible” enough to create life, then you should be responsible enough to preserve that life. There are so many options available for those unable to emotionally/financially support a child; therefore, I do not believe destroying that life should be a viable option. Just my 2 cents worth…
The not so virgin mary
March 12th, 2009
1:34 pm
I prefer abortion. Its so much better than having to pull out.
Logical Dude
March 12th, 2009
1:44 pm
Well, when you say “there is no hidden agenda”, it sure looks like there is a hidden agenda!
Of COURSE it’s an attempt to create a situation that equates an embryo as a human, similar to SB 169 states openly. Treat the embryo as property until it becomes a fetus with it’s own detectable brain activity. Then it can be labeled a fetus. Then, after it is born and detached from the mother, you can label it a human with full rights and measures.
Mojo
March 12th, 2009
1:45 pm
Mary, he’s talking about the war.
Ty
March 12th, 2009
1:45 pm
You know what they mean. When Republicans pass resolutions to go to war in other countries and kill innocent men, women and children. Hypocrites is the word
asdf
March 12th, 2009
1:46 pm
Shouldn’t our local government be more concerned about the economy than this? How’s our budget looking Purdue? Not too good I bet…
Skreet
March 12th, 2009
1:48 pm
I want to adopt an embryo and name it Sally. I will carry it in a little baby food jar and take it to Baptist Church with me for Sunday School.
Gayle
March 12th, 2009
1:52 pm
Idiots they are, just a bunch of idiots. We are the laughing stock of the world.
passed
March 12th, 2009
1:55 pm
Why republican spending so much time on deciding embryo and sunday alcohol sales? Don’t they see other issues to work on? It shows their priorities and what can be expected from them.
Bad Bill
March 12th, 2009
1:56 pm
What is the purpose of this ridiculous bill? When people donate their egg or sperm they have to sign away rights at that time. This bill was introduced just for the sake of introducing one. There is no merit or basis for it and it will not cut the incidence of lawsuits either. This is a total attempt to back door an effort to make abortion illegal. Our state is so backwards and these good ole boys like it that way… “keep them ignorant and uneducated and we can do whatever we want.”
passed
March 12th, 2009
1:59 pm
Mary, I am also pro-life, but that does not mean that you make laws so weird that people suffer because of them. Preserving an embryo is a personal matter, law should not comes into picture for that. who is going to pay to keep that embryo frozen? Think about your mental state when you know your embryo is lying with the clinic for forever when you don’t want to donate it. and I am was talking about Iraq war where republican supported it with full heart without giving it second thought that it will kill innocent people.
sugspc
March 12th, 2009
3:31 pm
If you are “responsible” enough to create life, then you should be responsible enough to preserve that life. There are so many options available for those unable to emotionally/financially support a child; therefore, I do not believe destroying that life should be a viable option
Mary we are talking about embryos. A cell, that is not yet a life. That can not live with out being put into the uterus of a human being and allowed to grow into a fetus. Which takes several weeks. This bill is stupid and a waste of tax payers money. Who is going to pay for all these frozen embryos and keep them in storage? Hmmmm..tax payers!! The clinics will not pay and neither will the patients who don’t own them or have rights to them. Because if they did, then they would have the right to choose what to do with those embryos. Funny how Obama just passed the stem cell research and now Georgia has to put an end to it this way.
Judge not
March 12th, 2009
4:45 pm
I wonder how many people who have posted responses to this story know someone who has personally faced this issue? As someone who has dealt with infertility, I can say from first hand experience that it makes this conversation much more personal and makes you not so quick to judge. I have friends who tried for years to conceive and then tried in vitro and both times it failed. They are now expecting a child through the use of a donor embryo. There are 1,000s of embryos which are frozen which people have no intentions of using. What would those who responded to this story propose that the fertility clinics do with these frozen embryos? Discard them? Use them for stem cell research? What if a couple who longed for a child were willing to go to the expense of having one of these frozen embryos implanted into them to give the embryo a chance at life and give them the chance of giving birth to a child and becoming parents. That is the type of couple you need to bear in mind when considering our state passing this legislation. The couple I know had to travel to another state which allows this type of transfer. Is there a legitimate reason why we would not want our state to allow this?
Stella
March 13th, 2009
4:52 am
Fetul adoption? Adoption has actually turned out be a complex and sensitive issue, please see >
http://about-orphans.blogspot.com
JMT
March 16th, 2009
12:47 pm
“Some opponents characterized the bill as a back door attempt to outlaw abortion.”
DUH!!!!
Obviously, anybody for the bill that says otherwise is being disingenuous.
They’re not fooling anyone that has a working logical brain.
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Regulating fertility centers
March 16th, 2009
9:24 pm
[...] Last Thursday, the Georgia Housepassed a bill that declares embryos are children and therefore can be adopted. Meanwhile, [...]
God
March 18th, 2009
12:08 pm
Jesus.
Penny
April 2nd, 2009
4:09 pm
I had eggs stolen on 12/3/93, and 12/15/93 an the thoughts of someone else raising my childern is driving crazy. No one should have the right to buy and sale humans. The Fertility drus alone is a billion dollar business. Is the Reps pushing this bill invested? My 18 year old daughter has blocked tubes. She says. “If I have eggs frozen, then I will carry them all. If to many eggs are extracted, then only two at a time will be fertilized. To many people go to bed praying to find their real famlies. That’s why the Locator, and Ancestory.com,etc does so well. People need to know who they are.