When Time Stands Still By Don DeMarco, Ph. D. Not much was happening in the life of Liam James for the first 19 years of his existence. In 1994 he was frozen at two days young and, like Rip Van Winkle, but for one year less than Washington Irving’s retiring character, he slept a very deep sleep. While he slept his peers grew up, went to school, and played sports. Some married, some found jobs, and some passed away. For him, time stood still. And then, after 19 years of hibernation, Liam left his cold confines for the warmth of a mother’s womb. While little Liam was serenely inactive, his mom-to-be was frantically trying to get pregnant, starting at age 39, first with a man, then, with donated sperm and artificial insemination procedures. Her next step was adoption. She was put in contact with an Oregon couple that had frozen four of their embryos in 1994, “leftovers” following an IVF procedure which provided them with twins. There are an estimated 500,000 frozen embryos in various facilities in the United States. Parents of these embryos have the prerogative of freezing them indefinitely, discarding them, donating them to science, or to other people, though the adoption of frozen/thawed embryos is rare. In this way, the “leftovers” (an infelicitous term since it brings to mind the remains of yesterday’s dinner), can be treated at will. They are ciphers until someone ascribes to them a status. Preparation for adoption, however, was not easy. For Liam’s future mom, it involved several months of undergoing acupuncture, ingesting holistic supplements, and taking hormones to thicken the wall of her uterus. Beth Greenfield, staff writer for Shine, posted the story under the title, “Baby Born After 19 Years as an Embryo” (Aug. 21, 2013). Two of the “leftovers” from the Oregon couple were transferred into the hopeful recipient. Liam attached, his sibling did not. Kelly Burke became the happy mom at age 45. The photograph accompanying Greenfield’s article attests to this. One sees a euphoric mom holding a beautiful little boy. And who could quibble with so enchanting an image? The happy ending must surely justify the arduous means. Case closed? Or is the case really closed? I recall giving a seminar in Toronto on new reproductive technologies. I showed the group a photograph of a happy mother holding her beautiful child. The child was the result of IVF. I asked whether we can resolve an ethical issue by looking at a photograph. To my surprise, some of the group members insisted that a happy photography removes the need for any further ethical discussion. Ethics by photography! The camera, however, does not capture very much. In the case of Kelly Burke, it reveals only what she wants the world to see. The non-visible aspects, however, warrant consideration. Do we want to downgrade human beings, tiny as they may be, to the status of “leftovers,” “extras,” “supernumeraries”? The percentage of human beings who are “discarded” in the world of new reproductive technologies is extremely high. “Like” Truth and Charity Forum on Facebook! Do we have any idea of the health problems that might result from being frozen in time for 19 years? There is the happy moment caught on film. But what does the future have in store for this fatherless child? Can we downgrade the value of some human beings, without assuming the risk of downgrading the value of all human beings? These questions and many more, are surely worth consideration. The difference between the photograph and the reality is proportional to the difference between a peephole and a panoramic view. What is Liam’s real age? Future Liams could be chronologically older than their parents. The present Liam has twin siblings living in Oregon who are 18 years his senior. When we make time stand still for some, what new problems are we creating in the normal age relationships that exist between family members? In Michael Crichton’s 1990 novel Jurassic Park, scientists were able to regenerate dinosaurs from their DNA that had been trapped in tree sap for millions of years. Was Crichton’s novel a cautionary tale? What fury was unleashed by these ancient creatures who reappeared, but in the wrong era. They were operating under the wrong conditions in the wrong time. “The time is out of joint,” groaned Hamlet, “O cursed spite, That ever I was born to set it right!” (Act 1, sc. 5, 186). The Good Book speaks to us about how there is a “time” for everything: “He has made everything beautiful in its time. There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity. . . a time to be born and a time to die” (Eccles. 3). Should a child be born 19 years after it was conceived? The question is surely worth pondering, for much is at stake. Dr. Donald DeMarco is a Senior Fellow of Human Life International. Doctor DeMarco is a member of the Pontifical Academy for Life and he is Professor Emeritus at St. Jerome’s University in Waterloo, Ontario and an adjunct professor at Holy Apostles College & Seminary in Cromwell, CT. He is the author of 22 books, including; Architects of the Culture of Death, The Many Faces of Virtue, The Heart of Virtue, and New Perspectives on Contraception. He has authored several hundred articles in scholarly journals and in anthologies, and articles and essays appearing in other journals and magazines and in newspapers; and innumerable book reviews in a variety of publications. His education includes: B.S. Stonehill College, North Easton, MA 1959 (General Science); A.B. Stonehill College, 1961 (Philosophy); Gregorian University, Rome, Italy, 1961-2 (Theology); M.A. St. John’s University, Jamaica, NY, 1965 (Philosophy); and Ph.D. At. John’s Univ., 1969 (Philosophy). His Master’s dissertation was “The Basic Concept in Hegel’s Dialectical Method” and his Doctor’s dissertation was “The Nature of the Relationship between the Mathematical and the Beautiful in Music”. He is married to Mary Arendt DeMarco and they have five children.
Posted on: Tue, 27 Aug 2013 11:03:30 +0000
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