“Do you have any frozen embryos we could adopt?” Marlene Strege asked her doctor.
“I’ve got tons of embryos,” the doctor responded, “but nobody’s ever asked me that question before.”
There is a good reason Marlene’s doctor had never been asked about embryo adoption. Prior to that moment in January 1997, the concept had not been explored.
Uncomfortable
In the late 1990s, John and Marlene Strege faced challenges conceiving a child. Like so many other couples struggling with infertility, they sought help through various treatments.
After initial treatments were unsuccessful, their doctor suggested in vitro fertilization (IVF).
However, as a Christian, Marlene was uncomfortable with this option. She was aware that the typical IVF process often resulted in an overharvesting of eggs, leading to more embryos than most couples chose to implant.
Marlene had concerns about the fate of those remaining embryos. She was troubled by the thought of embryos being discarded, donated to research, or frozen indefinitely.
Marlene shared her concerns with a co-worker, whose response sparked Marlene’s curiosity about the idea of adopting a child in the embryonic stage.
Marlene’s doctor later informed her that she had premature ovarian failure and was no longer producing eggs. This meant that even if she was open to it, conceiving biological children through IVF was not possible.
The doctor offered other options, but they also raised moral and ethical concerns for Marlene. It was then that she remembered the conversation with her co-worker. Through tears, she asked her doctor about the possibility of adopting a frozen embryo.
Undeniable
From that conversation, Marlene and John began a journey that would lead them to become the first family to adopt an embryo conceived through IVF. But the initial step was one that the couple approached with great care.
“I wanted to know if this would be honorable before God,” Marlene said, “so I reached out to get guidance on what God would think about this.”
The Streges sought advice from their pastors and even reached out to Focus on the Family’s Dr. James Dobson about the matter. Like Marlene’s doctor, Dobson said he had never been asked that question, which prompted him to seek counsel as well.
Eventually, the Streges received confirmation of what they had felt in their hearts.
“Everybody confirmed what John and I knew,” Marlene said, “and that is, life begins at fertilization. And if the original family is not going to go back and get these frozen embryos, then yes, they need to be placed for adoption.”
Encouraged by this confirmation, the Streges pressed on. Despite many obstacles, by December 1997, they had been matched with a family willing to donate their embryos to the Streges.
On the day before Easter 1998, an adopted embryo was successfully transferred to Marlene’s womb. On December 31, 1998, Hannah Strege was born.
The Streges never intended to be pioneers of embryo adoption; however, their convictions and faithfulness to God opened the way for new life. Of the more than 1 million frozen embryos in the United States, thousands have been adopted since Hannah’s birth.
Marlene Strege's comments were taken from an interview aired on Hannah's Heart, Episode 41, on afr.net.
(Digital editor's note: This article was published first in the January/February 2025 special pro-life issue of The Stand. Click HERE for a free six-month subscription.)
