{"id":2342672,"date":"2024-09-18T07:31:01","date_gmt":"2024-09-18T11:31:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/tim-walzs-position-on-ivf-shows-how-extreme-he-is\/"},"modified":"2024-09-18T07:35:25","modified_gmt":"2024-09-18T11:35:25","slug":"tim-walzs-position-on-ivf-shows-how-extreme-he-is","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/tim-walzs-position-on-ivf-shows-how-extreme-he-is\/","title":{"rendered":"Tim Walz&#8217;s Position On IVF Shows How Extreme He Is"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Ftim-walzs-position-on-ivf-shows-how-extreme-he-is%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2342672&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>At the recent Human Rights Campaign Dinner, Tim Walz, the \u200bDemocratic vice presidential nominee, highlighted \u2063a plan alongside Vice\u2062 President\u200d Kamala Harris\u200c aimed at restoring \u2063&#8221;decency&#8221; in \u2064the United States, particularly concerning human \u2062rights and the\u2064 protection of gay and transgender individuals. Walz \u2064criticized former President Donald Trump&#8217;s interpretation of &#8220;freedom,&#8221; which he argues allows government intrusion into personal lives,\u200b suggesting that the Republican Party&#8217;s stance undermines\u200c reproductive rights.<\/p>\n<p>The \u200ddiscussion raises ethical questions around reproductive technologies like in-vitro fertilization (IVF), which \u2063Walz supports.\u2064 Critics question whether the treatment of surplus embryos\u2062 as disposable\u200d undermines \u200dthe human\u2062 rights principles he \u2062promotes. Former President Trump, on the other hand, has proposed making IVF\u2064 more accessible to couples, though concerns remain about \u2063the moral\u2063 implications of \u2063creating embryos that may not be used, often leading\u200b to discarding or donating them to research.<\/p>\n<p>Research into fertility\u200b clinic \u200cmarketing strategies reveals that these organizations frequently\u2062 emphasize emotional appeals, focusing on the hope of\u200d parenthood while downplaying costs and the complexities \u200bassociated with excess embryos. Clinics commonly feature imagery of babies and use\u2064 language like &#8220;dream&#8221; and &#8220;miracle&#8221;\u2063 to attract clients, sometimes obscuring the financial realities and success \u2064rates \u2062of treatments.<\/p>\n<p>Most embryos created \u200cin\u200c IVF \u2063face\u200c uncertain futures, with many being discarded, \u200ddonated for research, or frozen indefinitely. The fate of these embryos often reflects \u200ddifficult decisions made by couples, raising profound ethical dilemmas about life and \u2062choice in the context of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-government-doesnt-owe-you-a-baby\/\" title=\"No baby owed by the government\">modern reproductive technologies<\/a>.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>At this year&rsquo;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=sXo9GkBD3J4&amp;embeds_referring_euri=https:\/\/www.bing.com\/&amp;embeds_referring_origin=https:\/\/www.bing.com&amp;source_ve_path=MjM4NTE\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Human Rights Campaign Dinner<\/a>, Democrat vice presidential nominee Tim Walz spoke of his and Vice President Kamala Harris&rsquo; plan to bring &ldquo;decency back&rdquo; to how the country does things. Their plan to bring decency back aims not only to protect human rights and equal justice under the law by ensuring freedom from discrimination for gay and transgender persons, it also includes actively opposing what they believe to be former President Donald Trump&rsquo;s version of &ldquo;freedom.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Trump&rsquo;s version of freedom, as Walz understands it, is &ldquo;that that the government should be free to invade &lsquo;every corner of our lives &mdash; our bedrooms, our kids&rsquo; schools, even our doctor&rsquo;s office.&rsquo;&rdquo; The Republican Party, he says, seeks to remove &ldquo;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/republicans-focus-on-bidens-age-while-democrats-go-after-trump-washington-examiner\/\" title=\"Republicans focus on Biden&#039;s age while Democrats go after Trump - Washington Examiner\">reproductive freedoms&#038;rdquo<\/a>; from some of the ways people have been choosing to build their families for quite some time already.<\/p>\n<p>Walz further stated that &ldquo;the bar is pretty damn low &hellip; to treat people like human beings.&rdquo; But considering that Walz is continually advocating for fertility treatments such as in-vitro fertilization (IVF), we have to ask: Where&rsquo;s the equal justice for those whose lives are diminished to experimental subjects or are simply disposed of through the IVF process? Isn&rsquo;t the treatment of &ldquo;extra&rdquo; human embryonic lives as expendable an affront to the human rights Walz claims to champion?<\/p>\n<p>For his part, former President Donald <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/politics\/donald-trump\/trump-says-wants-make-ivf-treatments-paid-government-insurance-compani-rcna168804\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Trump has recently stated<\/a> that his administration is &ldquo;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mprnews.org\/story\/2024\/08\/29\/trump-in-la-crosse-wisconsin-potterville-michigan-abortion-ivf-presidential-election-2024\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">pro-family<\/a>&rdquo; and wants more babies to be born; therefore, he wants IVF provided for &ldquo;free&rdquo; to infertile couples, either through government subsidization or by mandating that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/is-health-insurance-really-insurance\/\" title=\"Is Health Insurance Really Insurance?\">insurance companies pay<\/a> for it. He appears to remain unconcerned, or at best unaware, that IVF takes more life than it creates.<\/p>\n<p>In either case, perhaps Walz and Trump are simply unaware that in a typical IVF cycle hopeful couples end up with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/C8-5u3gIlyF\/\">13 or more <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/why-making-babies-in-test-tubes-is-not-pro-life\/\" title=\"Why Creating Babies in Test Tubes Contradicts Pro-Life Beliefs\">lab-created embryos<\/a><\/a> to consider, both practically and morally. Often couples decide what to do with their excess children after they feel their families are &ldquo;complete.&rdquo; The sad reality of IVF, though, is that their families are never fully complete while they have frozen children out there waiting to be rescued by their parents. A man and woman with 13 embryos that considers their family &ldquo;complete&rdquo; after implanting one more child still have 12 other children who remain, as yet, only partially realized, on ice.<\/p>\n<h2>How Clinics Advertise<\/h2>\n<p>Before diving into how couples dispose of their &ldquo;extra&rdquo; children, let&rsquo;s examine how clinics market to convince couples to use their services in the first place. <a href=\"https:\/\/ilj.law.indiana.edu\/articles\/7-Hawkins.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Researcher Jim Hawkins<\/a> sought to provide an in-depth analysis of fertility clinics&rsquo; websites to illustrate and better understand how clinics appeal to potential customers. While these websites often appeal to emotions and communicate the types of care they provide, they seldom mention the costs or success rates of services.<\/p>\n<p>As Hawkins found, &ldquo;some clinics claim to have lower prices but fail to list the price so that consumers can assess the truthfulness of the claim. Along the same lines, one clinic notes the fact that its prices are competitive and that it does not have hidden fees, despite the fact it does not list its fees &hellip; [one] clinic charging $9,000 for one IVF cycle, well above the average cost, claims to have &lsquo;the most competitive pricing in the greater Washington area.&rsquo; With so little pricing information available, it would be hard for consumers to assess these claims.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Hawkins found that some clinics will focus solely on emotional content, as, looking at homepages, he found &ldquo;Of the 372 clinics with websites, 294 &hellip; presented images of babies on the Home page of their websites; 112 &hellip; used the word &lsquo;dream&rsquo; on the Home page; and 33 &hellip; used the word &lsquo;miracle.&rsquo;&rdquo; He deduced that the reasoning for this includes focusing on a baby as a non-commodity and the relationship between clinic and patient as noncommercial to prevent awareness of cost concerns, since &ldquo;focusing on dreams &hellip; causes patients to underestimate the costs involved in fertility treatments.&rdquo; Further, this way of marketing can cause couples to associate the images and words with successful pregnancies, making them more likely to act.<\/p>\n<p>In advertising the types of care they provide and the qualifications of their staff, such as excellent technology, large facilities, providing access to donors, working with older patients, and having high-quality doctors, clinics may appear more attractive to patients. For example, &ldquo;if a clinic&rsquo;s success rate were lower than its competitors, perhaps the clinic would emphasize other subjective factors like its technological prowess or quality of its doctors to focus patients&rsquo; attention on those attributes instead of its lower success rates.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Once clinics hook clients with the promise of children, they are well on their way to creating an excess of human lives with which to play trial and error without acknowledging the incredible loss of life that accompanies the process.<\/p>\n<h2>The Fate of Embryonic Persons<\/h2>\n<p>Those embryos who survive <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/04\/26\/ivf-modernizes-ancient-eugenic-practices-of-selective-breeding\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">preimplantation screenings<\/a> and are not discarded outright &mdash; unneeded leftovers are routinely donated to scientific research, placed within the less than ideal situation of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.societyofstsebastian.org\/_files\/ugd\/f49069_810f8e333f534094be3b21383d77bd1a.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">embryo adoption<\/a>, or indefinitely frozen until their parents decide what to do with them. These frozen embryos may be included as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.americanbar.org\/content\/dam\/aba\/publications\/probate_property_magazine\/v30\/01\/2016_aba_rpte_pp_v30_1_article_brusil_50_shades_of_gray_area_cryopreserved_embryos_property.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">&ldquo;property&rdquo; in wills and divorce proceedings<\/a>, but more often than not they undergo one of the aforementioned <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/Parenting\/comments\/wi60nv\/leftover_embryos_from_ivf_what_would_you_do_and\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">unfortunate fates<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/Parenting\/comments\/wi60nv\/leftover_embryos_from_ivf_what_would_you_do_and\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">&ldquo;In the end we discarded<\/a>, which is the option we didn&rsquo;t want and I still feel pangs about it. But with many parenting decisions you do what you feel is right at the time and have to accept that you may have regrets later.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Personally, I&rsquo;d do research, but that&rsquo;s not allowed in my country, so we had them destroyed.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I put my Embryos in research, maybe some day this will be an affordable option, and have a greater than a 10 % chance of a successful pregnancy.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;We have leftover embryos and will be discarding what we don&rsquo;t use (or donating to science&hellip;). I&rsquo;m not comfortable with other people raising children that are genetically mine.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;If this second pregnancy takes like the first one then there will be 5 left. I think I would wait a few years to make certain I do not want anymore kids then I think I would donate to science or discard.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The doctor we talked to said in our area there wasn&rsquo;t a lot of unmet demand for embryos for research&hellip; so we decided that we would be ok discarding them, once we completed our family.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Research or discard. They aren&rsquo;t babies and I am not up for complicated mixed family dynamics and I don&rsquo;t trust anyone else to treat my children well.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;We have 6 embryos in storage right now&hellip; I&rsquo;m firmly in the destroy or science (preferred) category.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I would donate to science under the stipulation that they would never be used for pregnancy, or destroy them. I could never adopt out my own kid like that.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;We had 9 left over after we conceived our son. I never wanted them thrown away so they are now scientists. That&rsquo;s how I think of them. They&rsquo;re contributing to science and I am incredibly proud of all of them.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/IVF\/comments\/x65o6b\/what_to_do_with_extra_embryos_advice_would_be\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">We are donating our embryos to science<\/a>&hellip; I used donor eggs, so it&rsquo;s not my dna &hellip; we are going to have quite a few left over. We currently have 15 embryos and two kids &hellip; science was the best option for us. If it was my own, I&rsquo;d do the same. I wouldn&rsquo;t be comfortable with adopting out embryos for many reasons.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The insufficiency of the &ldquo;adoption&rdquo; option provides insight into the moral qualms that come with IVF, as many parents, such as those just quoted, and particularly mothers, acknowledge that these &ldquo;extra&rdquo; embryos are human beings when it comes to giving them away to other people.<\/p>\n<p>They know in the deepest places of their hearts that children are not commodities to be discarded, bought or sold, or given away like chattel, consigned to cold, suspended animation, or killed through science (no matter how &ldquo;cute&rdquo; the delusion of calling these destroyed children &ldquo;little scientists&rdquo; might sound).<\/p>\n<p>Before we can have the true &ldquo;freedom&rdquo; that Harris and Walz envision, we must stop fooling infertile couples with false hope through marketing meant to enchant them into deadly decisions, and rather provide equal justice for all persons, including the smallest among us.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Katie Breckenridge works for the children&#8217;s rights organization Them Before Us and is the author of the book <i>Silent Sorrows: Let&#8217;s talk about abortion, reproductive technologies, and adoption.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At this year&#8217;s Human Rights Campaign Dinner, Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz discussed his and Vice President Kamala Harris&#8217;s initiative to restore &#8220;decency&#8221; in the nation&#8217;s practices. Their approach focuses on safeguarding human rights and ensuring equal justice by protecting gay and transgender individuals from discrimination, while also opposing what they perceive as former President Donald Trump&#8217;s interpretation of &#8220;freedom.&#8221; According to Walz, Trump\u2019s notion of freedom implies that the government should have the right to intrude into personal aspects of life\u2014such as private spaces like bedrooms, schools for children, and even medical consultations. He argues that the Republican Party is attempting to strip away &#8220;reproductive freedoms&#8221; that many people have relied on for family planning.<\/p>\n<p>Walz remarked that \u201cthe bar is pretty damn low\u201d when it comes to treating individuals with dignity. However, given his ongoing support for fertility treatments like in-vitro fertilization (IVF), one must question where the equal justice lies for those whose lives are reduced to experimental subjects or discarded during IVF procedures. Is not treating \u201cextra\u201d human embryos as disposable a violation of the human rights Walz claims to uphold?<\/p>\n<p>In contrast, former President Donald Trump has recently declared his administration as \u201cpro-family,\u201d advocating for free IVF services for infertile couples through government funding or insurance mandates. He seems either unaware or indifferent to the fact that IVF often results in more lives being lost than created.<\/p>\n<p>Both Walz and Trump may not fully grasp that a typical IVF cycle can produce 13 or more lab-created embryos which couples must then decide how to handle once they feel their families are complete. The unfortunate truth about IVF is that families are never truly complete while there are frozen embryos awaiting their fate. For instance, a couple with 13 embryos who considers their family finished after implanting one child still has 12 other potential lives left unacknowledged.<\/p>\n<p>Before exploring how couples manage their \u201cextra\u201d embryos post-treatment, it&#8217;s important first to look at how clinics market these services. Researcher Jim Hawkins conducted an analysis of fertility clinic websites revealing how they attract clients without disclosing costs or success rates effectively. Many clinics boast lower prices but fail to provide clear pricing information; some even claim competitive pricing without listing any fees at all.<\/p>\n<p>Hawkins noted an emotional appeal prevalent on these websites: out of 372 clinics analyzed, 294 featured baby images prominently on their homepages; many used terms like &#8220;dream&#8221; and &#8220;miracle.&#8221; This strategy aims at portraying babies as non-commodities while downplaying financial concerns associated with treatment costs\u2014leading patients toward underestimating expenses involved in fertility treatments.<\/p>\n<p>Clinics often highlight advanced technology and experienced staff rather than focusing on success rates if those rates fall short compared with competitors&#8217;. Once clients are drawn in by promises of children through these marketing tactics, clinics may inadvertently contribute to creating excess human lives treated almost casually within a trial-and-error framework without acknowledging significant loss involved.<\/p>\n<p>For those embryos surviving initial screenings but not immediately needed\u2014many face grim outcomes such as being donated for research purposes or indefinitely frozen until parents make decisions about them. These frozen embryos can be included in wills but frequently meet unfortunate ends:<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; Some parents express regret over discarding unused embryos.<br \/>\n&#8211; Others opt for destruction due lack of options available.<br \/>\n&#8211; A few choose donation towards scientific research instead.<\/p>\n<p>The inadequacy surrounding embryo adoption highlights moral dilemmas tied up with IVF; many parents recognize these extra embryos&#8217; humanity when considering giving them away\u2014a sentiment echoed by various quotes from individuals grappling with this reality.<\/p>\n<p>Ultimately before achieving true freedom envisioned by Harris and Walz can occur society must stop misleading infertile couples through deceptive marketing strategies leading them toward harmful choices while ensuring equal justice extends even towards our smallest members\u2014the unborn embryonic lives caught up within this complex issue.<\/p>\n<p>Katie Breckenridge works at Them Before Us\u2014a children&#8217;s rights organization\u2014and authored Silent Sorrows: Let&#8217;s Talk About Abortion Reproductive Technologies And Adoption<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":828,"featured_media":2342673,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/HRC2-1-e1726175709155.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[41111,32468,37326,36113],"class_list":["post-2342672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-abortion-policy","tag-ivf","tag-minnesota-politics","tag-tim-walz"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/HRC2-1-e1726175709155.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2342672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/828"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2342672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2342672\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2342673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2342672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2342672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2342672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}