Embryos on Mars

Embryos on Mars

Imagine that we finally made it to Mars. The astronauts are exploring a frozen part of the planet and taking samples using, of course, a high speed gadget that we all have trouble pronouncing. They go back to base and run the samples through another gadget.  The gadget begins to make a whirring sound and then stops as a green light goes off and a steady beep is heard. The astronauts are beside themselves with excitement. The sample contained two frozen embryos! They found life on Mars. They notify their headquarters. After confirmation, the news hits the airwaves. Every media outlet is covering the story. “Life Found on Mars”, “Astronauts Find Frozen Life”, etc. Everyone is celebrating this tremendous discovery.

Of course this did not happen, but it could. Now I take you to Earth. I have two frozen embryos in a cryobank but according to the court in Missouri they are not life at all.  Just property. How can this be? How can we as humans be so hypocritical? Why do my embryos have to be on another planet to be considered life, but here on Earth they have no value as life?  There are thousands of people just like me who created life for the sole purpose of having children.  Yet in the majority of circumstances, the state courts and legislatures have failed to protect these lives. These lives are treated as chattel, property, or “tissue” to be either discarded or owned.

Perhaps it is because there is so much life on Earth that we have very little regard for such a small inconvenient life, such as an embryo. After all, everywhere we look we see an abundance of life. From an amoeba to a whale, a lot of us profess to valuing life and can even articulate a definition when asked about animals and plants. However, when it comes to human life we get tongue tied. All of a sudden it is complicated. When a sperm and egg combine, it’s conveniently called human tissue or preembryo or something else that does not denote anything living. We even sometimes say “embryo” and yet cannot admit that it is life in the same sentence.

I write this not to ban abortion or caste judgment on other’s actions. I write this so that we can start a real conversation about what we are doing. We need to be honest with ourselves. This ridiculous lie we have repeated over and over to ourselves and our children, is just that – a lie. If an embryo isn’t life then how did we all get here? An embryo is life. It’s a human life. That is simply science. If we as a society believe it’s ok to kill a human life, then so be it. But don’t justify it by making a ludicrous argument that an embryo isn’t life. And in my case, someone who is fighting to save the two lives I intentionally created, I am finding this definition to be an important one. Courts simply don’t care. After all, if no one’s life is on the line, it doesn’t matter. I’ve often wondered if I jettisoned my embryos to Mars if the courts would let me bring my babies home.

Jalesia “Jasha” McQueen is a Mother of 3 boys (one who has Down Syndrome), Veteran, Attorney, Entrepreneur and is currently in the Missouri Appellate Court seeking custody of her embryos, Noah and Genesis. “My dear Noah and Genesis, may you survive and be born.”  Jasha is co-founder and Director of Embryo Defense, a Missouri nonprofit organization dedicated to educating and providing resources for anyone who believes in saving human embryos.www.embryodefense.org