Embryo adoptions sidestep foster kids

This column was originally published in the News and Record.

Like it or not, Bush followed through on his promise to veto H.R. 810, the stem cell research bill last week.

While I enjoyed Tony Snow’s fumbling attempts to explain Bush’s decision and Karl Rove’s exposed lie about the promise of adult versus embryonic stem cells, my favorite part was the announcement itself, with Bush flanked by a dozen cooing “snowflake” babies.

It’s the parents of these babies that truly fascinate me, though. In case you’re not familiar with these kids, snowflake babies are children who were adopted as embryos. Well, adoption isn’t quite the word since embryos are not considered children by legal standards but for lack of a better term…

So these often infertile couples who oppose stem cell research adopt frozen embryos left over from the fertility treatments of others. More than one hundred snowflake babies have been born since 1997.

I’d like to say upfront that I don’t wish to take anything away from the beautiful children who joined Bush on stage for his announcement. (I even have to admit that I got a giggle from the wriggling toddler who inadvertently made an obscene hand gesture into the camera.) However, the state of the American foster and adoption programs make snowflake adoptions problematic for me.

As of the most recent statistics taken in September 2003, roughly 532,000 children were in foster care in the United States. The majority of these kids will either work toward reunification with their biological parents, find placement among non-parental family members, petition for emancipation or stay in foster care until they become legal adults. Still, this leaves well over 100,000 children hoping to be adopted.

More disturbing is that these statistics only cover America; the number grows exponentially when international adoption is factored in.

Despite the best efforts of overworked, underpaid social workers and the dedication of earnest, kind foster parents, our foster care system is a less than ideal place for children to be raised.

Shortly after college, I spent a year as a Guardian ad Litem. This program matches court-appointed volunteer advocates with children in foster care, the idea being that while social workers must advocate for the entire family, the Guardian ad Litem looks out only for the kid.

I worked with one teen during that year. Several months into his first foster home, it became apparent that he wasn’t being fed according to his medically-mandated dietary needs. We moved him in with a wonderful couple who were kind and invested in his welfare but were unable to keep him due to financial constraints. His third move that year meant he was unable to finish his school year, setting him back even further in what was already stunted educational development.

This is not an uncommon story. My high school boyfriend also went through the North Carolina foster care system with mixed results: a placement in which he was forced to share the floor with an untrained dog led to a placement with a kind but flawed family which led to a group home until finally, at 17, he dropped out of school and ran away.

For each of the 532,000 kids in foster care, there is a story and, more importantly, a kid with the cognitive ability to really understand her lot in life.

So, when I look at snowflake children, I see not only beautiful and lucky children in the arms of their parents, but also the decision those parents made in choosing frozen embryos over sentient children.