{"id":214,"date":"2005-06-06T00:14:50","date_gmt":"2005-06-06T07:14:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/x.jimanddoni.com\/?p=214"},"modified":"2005-06-06T00:52:47","modified_gmt":"2005-06-06T07:52:47","slug":"the-price-of-fame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimanddoni.com\/?p=214","title":{"rendered":"The Price of Fame"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well now I am going to get it!  You stand behind the President and get your picture on the front of the Washington Post and the LA Times and than it is OPEN SEASON \"emoticon\".  I have read so many articles in the last week that are either out of context, misleading, or completely inaccurate.  For this reason, I will be posting several on my ESCR pages along with my rebuttals.  (And speaking of the press, I am interviewing with the AZ Republic in the morning…be watching for this article).<\/em><\/p>\n

This evening though I stumbled upon a blog posting that was not written by the syndicated press but by a blogger such as myself.  I decided to share his article with you (along with my rebuttal)<\/em> because his argument is one that continually resurfaces.  Several other snowflake families have been subject to this same "attack".  As you all know me to be a "hit it on the front end instead of the back end<\/em>" kind of person, it makes sense to me to "prepare" my web readers for the type of media that you are likely to see written in regards to our family.  This is not original. It has been tried several times.  I find it to be completely irrational and usually don’t even respond to it.  The only reason I submitted my comments to this particular blogger was because his comments were so personal.  The grief of my heart is and has been my miscarriages.  You know that.  This man had the odacity to call my womb the womb of death.  He crossed a very personal line with me and I was not going to let that go unchallenged.<\/p>\n

Now, I want you to warn you in advance.  I am not going to share his identity or blog address with you.  My reason is simple.  I do not wish to begin a war.  I figure that once you read this, many of you are going to want to comment on this author’s site.  If he then in turn retaliates, we will both end up taking too much time engaging in a conversation that is unlikely to be resolved via the blog vehicle.  Further, he has a right that I want to defend to post anything he wants to (as I do \"emoticon\").  If my regular web readers disagree with something I have said in a posting, I don’t mind respectful comments about it.  HOWEVER if people who are not regular visitors seek out my website and post their frustrations looking for a debate- I do not appreciate that.  I don’t have time for it.  It feels like a violation to me.  For that reason, I do not want to encourage a retaliation against this blogger (okay I want to but for reasons just stated I won’t<\/em> \"emoticon\").  Feel free to rant and rave about what he said on MY site though okay?  LOL!  And by the way, his quotes come from the Washington Post article and my website which he so thoroughly investigated (not!)  Okay – are you ready?  Here it comes:<\/p>\n

Tuesday, May 31, 2005
<\/font><\/p>\n

Donielle Brinkman sends ten babies to their deaths so she can "experience pregnancy"<\/font> <\/font><\/a>
<\/h2>\n

As I wrote this, two different squirrels were scampering around trying to bang another squirrel on my windowsill. I couldn’t keep straight who wanted the sex and who didn’t.<\/font>These people Bush invited to a photo-op <\/font>are raving mad<\/font><\/a>,
<\/font><\/p>\n

As evangelical Christians, the Brinkmans, who are both 32, believe that life begins at conception and that each embryo is a person.<\/p>\n

When the embryos were shipped by FedEx to their fertility clinic in Phoenix, Donielle Brinkman recalled, her "ultimate nightmare" occurred: The package went astray because of an erroneous Zip code. In a panic, she drove to a FedEx warehouse to retrieve it herself. "I went to the counter, and I wasn’t leaving until they gave me that tank," she said. "I said: ‘You have my babies there. I need you to hand them over.’ "<\/p>\n

… Over the next three years, she insisted that her doctors transfer all of the embryos into her womb, two or three at a time. She had four transfers, and three miscarriages. Tanner was the only one who survived, but "we were committed to all 11 of those babies," she said. "We were going to see it through as long as it took."<\/p>\n

… When the Brinkmans ran into fertility problems, they first tried in vitro fertilization themselves, unsuccessfully. They also thought about a conventional adoption. But because they wanted to experience a pregnancy, Donielle Brinkman said, they turned to Nightlight Christian Adoptions of Fullerton, Calif., and its "Snowflakes" program, a name intended to emphasize that every embryo is unique.
<\/font>Recap,
<\/font><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Donielle Brinkman considers a fertilized embryo a person, presumably with the same right to life as everyone else
    <\/font><\/li>\n
  2. Donielle knows her uterus is likely to kill any embryo that finds its way in
    <\/font><\/li>\n
  3. An already born unwanted child is not good enough for her to adopt, Donielle wants to experience pregnancy herself
    <\/font><\/li>\n
  4. Donielle opts to send eleven donor embryos to her uterus of death; one survives
    <\/font>I’m a big fan of adoption, but don’t consider the actions Donielle Brinkman took to be immoral. What she does with her ability\/inability to reproduce with or without the aid of science is none of my business. But I fail to understand how she can avoid feeling guilty about these 10 babies she thinks died so she could experience pregnancy<\/em>.
    <\/font>UPDATE: From the Brinkman’s website – Donielle expresses <\/font>    something akin to regret<\/font><\/a> or a rethinking … or something,
    <\/font>\n
    We feel so blessed that the Lord chose us for two very unique and different adoptions. The first was a Snowflake Embryo Adoption – what a joy it was to get to carry Tanner. After loosing all 10 of Tanner’s siblings in first trimester miscarriages though, I did not have the heart to continue down that road.
    <\/strong><\/font>Two questions arise: First, if her "heart" won’t let Donnielle continue down a road she chose, why did her brain let her get on it in the first place? Her "pregnancy experience" fulfilled, she now thinks sending snowflake babies to likely death is all of a sudden wrong?
    <\/font>The second question is why is Bush posing for an "embryo adoption" press photo with a woman who has qualms about "embryo adoption" in some cases, including her own?
    <\/font>    <\/a>Post a Comment<\/font><\/a>
    <\/font><\/p>\n

    Comments:
    <\/font>    <\/a>Hi there! Donielle Brinkman here:). I was googling for something and happened upon this article. It appears that I should take a moment and clarify a few of your "facts". You seem to be applying some faulty reasoning here. Allow ME to recap:<\/p>\n

    (1) Yes I pursued embryo adoption because I wanted to experience pregnancy
    (2) I do not support cryopreservation BECAUSE it can be harmful to embryos. The fact that I don’t agree with cryopreservation though has nothing to do with the fact that these embryos needed mommy’s and daddy’s. I don’t support sex outside of marriage either but I wouldn’t refuse to adopt because I disagreed with the timing of conception. (3) My womb was not the problem (according to the Dr.s). I did carry Tanner to a full term birth and tested negative for any factors that could have contributed to my miscarriages. The Dr.s concluded that the miscarriages were due to abnormalities within the embryos. They would have miscarried irregardless of who carried them. Although to your point, had I found out after my first miscarriage that my body was causing the loss of our childrens lives, we were prepared to place them with another family. We would have been heartbroken but we would have prioritized them. This is why we made sure to have me tested before proceeding with the other transfers (4) The intent of transferring frozen embryos into a mother’s womb should be obvious. To rescue them from frozen orphanages. This is a life saving endeavor – not selfish life taking. Not sure why this is confusing. (5) My "regrets" were not about embryo adoption – don’t take me out of context please. For a mom who has suffered infertility, to then loose children in miscarriage is a HEAVY grief to carry. I mourned these babies and am emotionally not prepared to risk another miscarriage (although – medically I shouldn’t have to be concerned about that any more than any other woman because once again – my Dr.s claim I did not contribute to their loss of life). And lastly, I should point out to you that I most definitely support domestic adoption. Maybe you missed that part on my website? We domestically adopted our son at 25 weeks in January of 2004. I held both my children before they were deemed "viable" Tanner while in a tank and Ty before he was even out of the second trimester. Any wonder why I lobby to protect these tiny lives? Just thought your posting needed a little balance. Sincerely – Donielle Brinkman
    <\/font>By <\/font>    Doni Brinkman<\/font><\/a>, at <\/font>6\/5\/2005 10:39 PM<\/font><\/a>  <\/a>
    <\/font><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Well now I am going to get it!  You stand behind the President and get your picture on the front of the Washington Post and the LA Times and than it is OPEN SEASON .  I have read so many articles in the last week that are either out of context, misleading, or completely inaccurate.  […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mamas-diaries"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimanddoni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimanddoni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimanddoni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimanddoni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimanddoni.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jimanddoni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimanddoni.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimanddoni.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimanddoni.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}