I thought that “snowflake babies” was a term used for actual children delivered after a blastocyst that was implanted in a non-biologically related woman to be brought to term. They’ve expanded it to mean the blastocysts? how patently ridiculous!

In a month or two we’re going to be doing gametes from hair-follicles.
And waxes and hair plucking will become…....
And?

Excising a pilonidal cyst is murder of all the little hair babies would could have cloned!  Murder, I say!

Stem cells are derived from blastocysts? Oh! To hear the the anti-abortionists tell it, they’re lancing live babies in the brain. Good video!

The Latter Day Beats are also known as the New Shakers.

I long, long to show some dedicated life-begins-at-conception anti-choicer a photo of an eight-cell blastocyst and a photo of a born infant and demand to know whether the two are really morally equivalent…and when my opponent confirms that they are, reveal that its actually a fish blastocyst, or something. “You can’t tell the difference between a human being and a trout? And you say my philosophy devalues human beings?”

Oh, I would LOVE to be in the room when you’re doing that, Karalora. With a video camera.
If they really think they’re the same as infants, are they going to hold funerals for them, perhaps laying them to rest in those little plastic eggs used for vending-machine toys?

Gotta watch yourself with those sweaters…  Ann Althouse will come after you!

Amanda,

One concern I have is that the state of science education in the US is so woefully lacking that I doubt it’ll make much of an impression….especially among the anti-choice crowd.  Why do you think they and their ideological allies are expending so much effort to undermine education through efforts such as introducing ID/creationism in science classes and from what I heard from some undergrad classmates…..cut the amount of science classes needed for high school graduation requirements?

Heck, I was dumbfounded at hearing how some decent private boarding schools only require 2 years of science without lab for graduation requirements…..amusing considering how most upper/upper-middle class Americans feel private schools are always better. 

Comparatively speaking, my “inferior” urban public high school required 4 years of science….3 of those with lab to graduate. 

As for the black turtleneck….have you ever considered doing ads for Apple, Inc.?

I know, I’m just out there tempting men by showing my face and talking about biology.

Hubba hubba.  Show me your mitochondria, baby!

I agree that science education is weak, but I don’t know.  The science on this issue isn’t that hard to understand.

It isn’t the lack of understanding that I’m worried about.  It is the outright disdain and even antipathy towards science and scientists which many Americans seem to have that I’ve observed and heard about from MSM, classmates, and co-workers.  A mentality illustrated by how most schoolchildren who are interested in academics, especially math and science are often socially ostracized at best and bullied/physically assaulted at worst without much more than a murmur from US society at large.

You know before i ever saw your photo, i used to picture you dressed in a black turtleneck and matching beret. For some reason it made me smile.

I suggest you try sitting when you shoot these: your delivery might be more relaxed.

Oh, and just for the record, the effectiveness rate for unrelated transfer of frozen embryos is typically in the 10-20% range, so the people “adopting” these snowflakes are condemning almost all of them to the horrible death they whine about. (But if the recipients get lucky, the cost is about 10-20% that of even cheap real IVF. So there’s a certain similarity between the whole snowflake thing and the people who want to stop abortion so that there will be lots of fresh white babies to adopt.)

Unfortunately, unlike the situation in many cases with adoption of actual children, clinics AFAIK don’t allow embyo donors to vet the prospective recipients. So unless you’re a wingnut, research or drainpipe it is.

Amanda, you’re slowly developing a good presence in front of the camera, a few months ago you were moving a bit during one introduction to a video, now you are as good as a newscaster for a station in a major metropolitan market, which should help you in your never-ending battle for truth, justice, and the Feminist way .

Amanda, you’re slowly developing a good presence in front of the camera, a few months ago you were moving a bit during one introduction to a video, now you are as good as a newscaster for a station in a major metropolitan market, which should help you in your never-ending battle for truth, justice, and the Feminist way .

Busting for a job with the Galaxy Broadcasting System and Morgan Edge?

Uhhhh, not so much on the camera presence: that’s why I suggested sitting. (Used to be in production.)  Hell, even Jon Stewart looks uncomfortable when they make him stand.  It’s very difficult to stand in front of a camera and look relaxed, especially without something to occupy one’s hands.