In the decades following the rise of in vitro fertilization, hundreds of thousands of human embryos have been cryopreserved and ultimately abandoned, raising urgent and largely unresolved ethical questions. What moral responsibilities are owed to these embryonic human lives, and what courses of action remain open to those seeking to act with integrity in the face of this technological legacy?
In this work, Irene Alexander offers a careful and rigorous examination of the ethical possibilities surrounding abandoned frozen embryos. Drawing on philosophical reasoning, theological insight, and contemporary bioethical debate, she evaluates a range of proposed responses, including embryo adoption, indefinite cryopreservation, thawing without transfer, and the emerging prospect of artificial wombs. Each option is assessed not only for its practical implications but also for its coherence with a robust account of human dignity and moral responsibility.
Rather than offering simplistic solutions, Alexander clarifies the moral principles at stake, illuminating the tensions between compassion, justice, and the limits of technological intervention. She situates the problem within a broader cultural and scientific context, showing how developments in reproductive technology have outpaced the ethical frameworks needed to guide them.
Accessible to educated readers while grounded in serious scholarship, this book provides a much-needed framework for thinking clearly about one of the most complex bioethical dilemmas of our time. It will be of particular interest to scholars, students, and practitioners in bioethics, theology, philosophy, and medicine, as well as to anyone seeking to understand the moral contours of life in an age of unprecedented technological power.
