FRAMESHOP:FRAMESHOP: 'SNOWFLAKE BABIES'

Sometimes, we just need to stand back in amazement at the tireless--relentless--framing by the radical conservative right in America.

The phrase 'snowflake babies' is one such example.  Never heard the phrase before?  Wondering what a 'snowflake baby' is?

The phrase is rapidly becoming a Top 10 hit in the Republican spin machine. 

'Snowflake babies' is a phrase that invokes a radical conservative frame called 'embryo adoption' and unless Progressives need to be aware of it, so they do not repeat it.

'Adoption':  In GOP Ideology It Happens Before Birth
Consider this paragraph from the Nightlight Christian Adoptions information page on Snowflake Adoptions:

When a family finishes building their family, or decide that embryo implantation is no longer in their plans, they are confronted with some difficult decisions.

What will they do with the embryos that remain frozen? Destroy the Snowflakes™ Embryo Adoptions embryos? Donate them for research? Donate the embryos for implantation?

There seems to be something missing in these choices.

These embryos are pre-born children, and they deserve a chance to be born.

(see the rest  of the file here)

The phrase that leaps off the page in this passage from Nightlight is 'pre-born children.' It is a peculiar concept for most of us, but it is the key to understanding what is meant by 'snowflake babies.' The logic is actually provided in the Nightlight document itself:

When embryos are created, life begins. When embryos are implanted, and a woman becomes pregnant, the development continues until the birth of the child.

(see the rest  of the file here)

This is the logic,  of course, of the 'culture of life' frame. In this frame, the idea of 'life' begins at the very moment of cell division.  But unlike Progressives who refer to that fertilized egg as an 'embryo,' the Nightlight adoption agency refers to that embryo as a 'preborn child.'

According to this logic, the IVF process produces a surplus of 'pre-born' children in a frozen state--'snowflake babies.'

These frozen embryos are subsequently 'adopted' via the Nightlife program at a cost of about $5,000.  At this point--the 'adoption' parents now have a 'pre-born' child.  They are the proud parents of a snowflake, uh...'baby.'

Now, according to this logic--birth is almost an after though.  Reading this Nightlight literature on the 'snowflake babies,' one almost gets the sense that these 'babies' have had long and difficult lives up to the point of being adopted.  Birth, in this frame, is not so much a beginning, but the end of a difficult 'life' that the frozen cluster of cells--mean 'snowflake baby'--has endured.

One almost wonders why the Nightlight Christian Adoption agency has not published the diary of a  snowflake baby, recounting the hopes and dreams of the frozen embryo.

A Frame That Blocks U.S. Researches From Finding A Cure For Cancer
The big picture here is pretty straightforward once we actually read these quotes from Nightlife Christian Adoption services.

The goal of the snowflake baby' idea is to block any possible use of these embryos for stem cell research that can contribute to finding a cure for deadly diseases.

Once defined as a 'pre-born' child, the embryo used in research is a 'murder' victim.

But are frozen embryos 'pre-born' children?

No.

Is There A Woman In This Pregnancy?
The problem with this logic is that it isolates the embryo from the woman.  An embryo cannot become a child independent of the woman's body.  So, the idea that an 'embryo' is an independent being is just plain wrong.

For a frozen embryo to become a child, it must be implanted in a woman's uterus.  What happens from there depends on that connection between the woman and the uterus, as well as a fair amount of genetic chance.

Some embryos implanted in a woman's uterus through this process actually result in a fetus and a full-term pregnancy and the birth of a child.  But many do not. 

In fact, viability--the quality of the fetus that allows us to say that this will be a child--is not clear until long, long after the embryo is implanted in the woman's uterus.  Moreover, the element of risk in this process is what makes assisted pregnancy using frozen embryos such an emotional process for the woman.  The clinical invasion of the process is the opposite of 'natural' sexual reproduction, and it is only the woman's desire to become a mother that leads a woman to undergo this experience.

And then she waits, and experiences more treatments, without guarantee that the process will result in a viable fetus.  And even if the fetus is viable, there can be subsequent complications.

My point?

The 'snowflake babies' concept does an excellent job at redefining pregnancy as the independent struggle of an embryo to become a full-fledged child--a narrative that treats the embryo as if it is already a person.

But pregnancy is the experience of women in which the embryo is a part.  Pregnancy is not the heroic life story of an embryo--frozen or otherwise.

There is a woman in every pregnancy.  And the 'snowflake babies' frame attempts to  remove that woman from the  role of central agent in the process of birth, turning her instead into a fee-paying destination for the pre-born child.

Got $5,000?  Then you, too, can help this pre-born baby be born.

Conclusion:  Do Not Use The Phrase 'Embryo Adoption'
When President Bush vetos the Stem Cell research bill--as he has threatened to do--there will be a big discussion in the media, and the temptation will be to pick up this language of 'embryo adoption.'

Progressives should avoid using this radical conservative frame and stick to talking about the value of stem cell research at finding 'cures' for deadly diseases.

Remember:  Pregnancy is not the heroic tale of an embryo struggling to find a host womb so it can be born--pregnancy is the private experience of a woman. 

©  2006 Jeffrey Feldman