This is a cross post from my other blog at www.atheistanalysis.com. Please check out our site and watch a video or two or six!

A slight twinge of confusion, a raised eyebrow, and even an open mouth; this is the face I imagine you are making after making it though that title. You wish to know how someone can establish a connection between the procedure that has been responsible for the birth of approximately five million children in the last thirty five years and the term genocide. Let us begin, shall we?



The process.

Few people besides those who have encountered a need for this procedure know the process specifics aside from the basics. Embryos are taken from the female patient and are either frozen or kept “fresh”, for lack of a better word. The reason being that of probabilities, as the frozen embryos have a higher rate of failure through a variety of natural pregnancy termination occurrences as well as intentional termination when the fetus is known to be ostensibly malformed.

Another reason for freezing the embryos is to attempt multiple zygote implantation, fertilized embryos cultured to a cluster of a few hundred or more cells, to increase the chances of one or more taking hold. This is responsible for the stories we hear of rare cases where extremely numerous births occur to be immediately followed by reality television contracts on “educational” channels.

The risk.

The estimate is, these are very rough approximations as the entire world is included, that there is a 50 to 85 percent failure rate with potentially even worse values in some countries, such as China, with the capabilities but do not report their records. Certain locations have absolutely abysmal success records making it necessary to thoroughly research any fertility clinics before trust can be established and measures confirmed to avoid contamination or misstep. There are very specific factors such Pelvic Inflammatory Disease which causes infertility and which now counts for one in five of all gynecological admissions that reduce the success rates of In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) even further.

Basic scientific findings and relevant risk understanding aside HOW IS THIS GENOCIDE?



From here we now move to the pro life movement, the vehement and often riotous protectors of the origin of life. Mostly represented by the conservatively religious right wing of the political spectrum, but there are firmly established secular right to life factions as well, who define life at the moment of fertilization. This is the key… Can you put the puzzle together now?

In the last thirty five years there have been an estimated five million children born using this manual fertilization and implantation method. At the beginning the failure rate was staggering but has gotten better over time with the understanding of factors that increase the risk of termination. Even so, with an optimistic perspective and using the total number of assumed successful births without ANY of the numbers from the most populated country on the planet, China, there have been at least five million manually fertilized and implanted “living” zygotes that were lost, naturally terminated, or even manually terminated due to intense medical condition. Simply put, with a 50 percent failure rate for every successful birth is a zygote death to pair it with.

Taking a bit more math into account, rarely does the procedure take on the first try, potentially averaging two more more procedures per client effectively doubles or triples the total number of “lives” lost. Potentially ten to fifteen million fertilized embryonic zygotes perishing in the life of the program with the reported rates. Getting clearer yet?

What I ask and have been cheaply alluding to the entire time is: where is the pro life community to protect these tiny victims of what the might call gross negligence and probability driven slaughter? The failure rate is so high that it is almost certain death for millions of the tiny lives they are usually willing to march, swing signs, and chant for.

“1 2 3 4; What are we fighting for? 5 6 7 8 Children’s lives are at stake!”

But they are absent, it is silent outside a fertility center, not one dead fetus sign, or biblical quotation refuting the providence of abortion… (I tried to find one to mention here and simply could not, let me know if you have a good one). More clear examples: if I told you that on the first day in school there was a fifty to eighty five percent chance that your child would die would you picket the front steps of the school? All I am looking for is consistency on the part of the pro-life movement…

They will fight to the bitter end in the street before an abortion clinic, in front of the capital to restrict access to abortifacients as birth control, and mission to third world countries to proselytize until they can no longer speak to save the soul of what they call a full life from the moment of conception. But, with the evidence I have just given you might there be something here for their staunch definition of life?

Are those protesters plainly satisfied because of the fact there was a paltry 15 percent that lived? I ask this without sarcasm or sly intent, but with sincere incredulity that with the definition of life met to their criteria and a mortality rate of fifty percent for a thirty year old or younger woman in perfect health to eighty five percent for a forty five year old or greater woman there is no protest. Once again that is assuming PERFECT HEALTH, if any of the known factors such as the one that I mentioned above, PID, have occurred at some point in the life of the patient the sexual organ repair possibilities are so low as to render successful pregnancy to that of a lottery… As it happens naturally…

Reasons for ignoring the statistics I have compiled here are likely to follow in the order of: the creation of life and the natural processes of the human body are “god’s” will and the sanctity of life has been preserved. Even with initial beginnings inside a scientific laboratory and the loss of the many is equated in the love for the few that survived and gave supreme happiness to the parents and loved ones. It is understandably conceded that many will see my arguments here and simply shrug off the concept focusing only on the topic that guarantees vitriol and controversy but to me there is a strange duality here and all I hope you will follow me down the rabbit hole to the paradox of the mind, a place where even the preconceived notions of birth have a dark side. Thoughts?