Could advances in medical tech make the entire abortion debate mute?

[don954]

I was talking to a doctor, he was musing about something that could really change the abortion debate. Instead of performing standard abortions, they could do an intact dilatation and extraction, then, cryogenically freeze the fetus or embryo, store it till such a time the mother wishes to have a baby, and then re-implant it so she could bring it to gestation. The only part that is still up in the air is the re-implantation of a fetus more than 1 week old, but that is a technology development issue.

What do you think? Fundies don’t seem to have much problem with test-tube babies, this wouldn’t be much different, but they do tend to get their panties in a bunch about things for no real reason...

[Walt Starr]

1. I've been advocating movement into this area since the early 90's

when invitro started becoming so common.

[Verve]

2. Interesting! A step further--donating fetuses to a fetus bank.

:shrug: You never know?

[HereSince1628]

3. Too expensive to be useful for most of the population.

Is what I think.

[bleedingheart]

4. I don't see that working at all....

first off there are many reasons for abortion.

1. Rape...I don't know when anyone would want to find the right time to bear their rapists child.

2. Incest...same as above.

3. Teenage unwanted...I don't think that some woman would marry her future husband and then say..."honey..do you mind me gestating my high school boyfriend's baby"...

4. Married unwanted...if they can't afford or want the baby for what ever reason...I don't see them finding "the right time" later...

5. Health risks...either the child has a problem (genetic) or the mother is at risk...and I don't think that saving that fetus for someone else to bear would be the first thing on that person's mind.

there is also the cost....this type of stuff (if it ever happened) would be limited to those with enough cash.

[SheilaT]

5. You're assuming that in all cases

the woman would eventually want the baby, and that's not very often true. I suppose you could make the case for making the fetuses available to otherwise infertile couples, but there will still be many more fetuses available than infertile couples or those willing to "adopt".

The core of the problem is that sometimes women get pregnant when they don't want to be. And it doesn't matter at all why she doesn't want the baby. Failed birth control, rape, carelessness, whatever. In the end it's an accidental embryo, as one women expressed it to me, and only she and her physician, and maybe the father, should be involved in the decision.