3:03 pm April 3, 2009, by Aaron Gould Sheinin
Human embryos could be formally adopted by people who want to become parents, under a bill given final approval Friday.
H.B. 388 is intended to clearly relinquish rights to a human embryo and allow the parents who try to bring the embryo to life to be the legal parents of the child who may be born.
The House voted 108-61 on Friday to agree to a change made in the Senate.
The bill defines a human embryo as a fertilized egg, from the single-cell stage to 8-week development. The legislation skirts the issue of whether the embryo is a person. While the embryo could be adopted — as a baby would be — the bill deals with a contract regarding a parent’s rights to an embryo. It does not give the embryo its own rights.
Embryo donation is already allowed in Georgia. Supporters said the legislation would allow for a clear adoption of some of the 20,000 human embryos now frozen and housed in fertility clinics
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8 comments Add your comment
villadawg
April 3rd, 2009
4:13 pm
I’m thankful I am moving to Missouri.
TW
April 3rd, 2009
4:28 pm
There is no better proof of our failing schools than the morons we have running our state.
Does this mean the biological mother is merely an ‘incubator?’
Do the adoptive parents get to tell the ‘incubator’ what not to eat and what they can/can’t do?
If the ‘incubator’ miscarries, are the adoptive parents on the hook for funeral costs?
They’re starting to tell Georgia jokes in Alabama.
Morons.
Kevin
April 3rd, 2009
5:11 pm
This is a maneuver by the radical Right to Lifers to chip away at a woman’s choice. Since the fringe right will never get abortion fully outlawed, they’re pulling stunts like this to advance their agenda.
This is a sham, and disgrace. The next step in their plan is to give the embryo rights.
If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention.
rightofcenter
April 3rd, 2009
6:23 pm
To those who have already posted,
I can’t quite figure out why this is a sham and a disgrace, and why I should be outraged. If you were paying attention, you would know that this clearly does not give the embryo any rights. If you are labeling this anti-choice, how does it in anyway limit a woman’s choices?
stella
April 4th, 2009
11:58 am
The adoption of embryos breaches the UN’s Convemtion On The Rights Of The Child in papragraph nine of its preamable as they do not have “the same rights as others prior to birth”
Old fashioned adoption itself has proved to have emotional casualities as can be seen by Googling the word adoptee: you will see invective and hurt as written up by adoptees themselves.
Please see the link >
http://about-orphans.blogspot.com for some professionals’ insights.
And please also see >
http://beware-of-the-fertility-industry.blogspot.com
Georgia Update–Embryo Adoption Legislation Enacted « Related Topics
April 5th, 2009
2:16 pm
[...] I won’t retrace the whole history here–it’s there in the past posts on Georgia’s legislation. But this is the end of the story, at least for this year. The Georgia legislature has enacted a bill–HB388–that ostensibly provides for the adoption of embryos. (It’s called the Option for Adoption Act.) If you do not want to read the actual bill, you can read news coverage here. [...]
fultonrighty
April 5th, 2009
8:46 pm
The hostility this issue engenders is really hard to fathom. This bill only gives an option to adopt embryos and have clear parental rights over them before they are transferred to the woman bearing the child. There is no “anti-woman” or “anti-choice” dimension to this at all. It protects the woman who bears the child from having the biological parents come back and claim him. More choices–you can do the adoption route or do what is being done now, more of a contract law deal. Oh the outrage!
Michael
April 6th, 2009
9:56 am
I, unlike most people on this post, actually have read the bill. I know of couples who have adopted embryos, and this would help them immensely. For infertile couples who want to adopt and want to experience pregnancy, embryo adoption is a wonderful route. This bill simply makes it clear that once the embryos are implanted in the woman, the biological parents can’t come back and claim ownership. I fail to see the horror in that.