Extra Embryos Aid The Childless

A bill to lift federal limits on embryonic stem cell research has pitted Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist against President Bush. Monday, on The Early Show a paralyzed woman, who believes the cells could help her walk, shared her story. In the second part of the series, Two Faces Of Hope, Correspondent Tracy Smith has another side of the story.

"It's heartbreaking," says Tracy Jones. "Every month, I cried. Every time my period came, I cried."

Meanwhile, another couple, who lived thousands of miles away, was wrestling with their own dilemma. Heather and David Wright had twins via in vitro fertilization, and a third child less than a year later. They felt their family was complete. But they wondered what to do with their 10 frozen embryos, left over from IVF.

Heather Wright explains, "If we could help somebody else that wanted a family, as bad as we had wanted our family and couldn't, and we could give these embryos, these little children, to somebody else, there was no doubt in my mind."

So the Wrights donated their embryos to a program called "Snowflakes." Run by Nightlight Christian Adoptions, Snowflakes matches couples who have extra embryos, like the Wrights, with couples desperate to have a baby, like the Joneses. They call it "embryo adoption."

J.J. Jones says, "As kind of far-fetched as it seemed, the idea of being able to be both adoptive and birth parents was just a miracle to us."

The Joneses hoped their embryo implantation would work. But the success rate for the procedure is low - less than 30 percent. Of the 10 embryos the Wrights gave the Joneses, seven did not survive the thaw. The remaining three were implanted in Tracy Jones' uterus. One gave them the news they had been waiting for.

"I didn't believe the doctor," Tracy Jones says, laughing. "I didn't feel pregnant."

J.J. Jones notes, "We went through probably two-dozen pregnancy tests, all the different brands, every kind you can imagine, 3 or 4 times a day.

Nine months later, Trey was born.
"He's such a sweet baby," Tracy Jones says. "It doesn't make any difference at all that he's adopted or there's no genetic connection. He's our son, and we just love him."

He also became a political symbol. In May, the Joneses brought Trey to the White House, where he was literally held up by President Bush as a reason against using embryos for stem cell research.

The president said, "The children here today are reminders that every human life is a precious gift of matchless value."

Asked if the Joneses had any hesitation about putting their baby in the middle of this political debate, J.J. Jones says, "I think we'd say, he's the point. He was our miracle, born because a genetic family decided that he wasn't research or garbage. We have him today because of that decision."

Infertility counselor Dr. Linda Applegarth says, "For most couples, they really are not comfortable donating their embryos, donating their genetic material, to another family."

She points out many couples prefer to donate extra embryos to medical research.

Dr. Applegarth explains, "I think that there are couples who would feel that this has great benefits for humankind, that this may be a way for them to do a greater good in terms of helping us learn more about diseases and how many long-term serious diseases could be cured."

Out of the more than 400,000 frozen embryos stored in clinics around the U.S., only 2 percent are donated to other couples. Complicating matters is whether any relationship between donor and adoptee will exist. J.J. and Tracy Jones want their baby to know his genetic parents. So not long ago The Early Show brought them together, for the very first time.

Tracy Jones was worried about starting a relationship, thinking the Wrights would want Trey back.

"I wondered: Would they feel this connection, and regret their decision?" Tracy Jones says. "That was my big fear. And I still fear that they might, when they see him."

She was not the only one worried.

Heather Wright says, "My biggest worry was that I would, once I saw that baby, I would want that baby."

Holding Trey for the first time, Heather Wright says, "He's beautiful." And as she gives her husband the chance to hold the little one, she notes, "I can tell that he's in our family, was part of our family. But he's not ours."

Crying, she says, "I'm just so happy that we can do this for J.J. and Tracy."

Crying, too, Tracy Jones says, "One of my biggest fears was that they would regret their decision when they saw him, so it just it made me feel so relieved that she said that she thought he was ours."

So what's next?

Heather Wright says laughing, "Trey goes back to Mama."

J.J. and Tracy Jones plan to tell their son the full story of his unusual birth. Both couples have agreed that he'll call the Wrights Aunt Heather and Uncle David.