There’s a subtlety in this family exchange that is worth appreciating.
There’s a subtlety in this show clip that is worth appreciating.
A clip from the new season of The Kardashians television series was recently shared on social media, which I’ve transcribed and edited slightly for clarity:
Khloé Kardashian: I was on the phone, and I was talking to the doctor, and I said out loud, like, something about, there’s . . . she has a sister in the freezer, or something like that. And so now True [Khloé’s daughter] is like laser-focused on that she has a sister in the freezer.
Kris Jenner: Oh no.
Khloé: And she’s told people.
Kris: She hears everything.
Khloé: She does. She’s silent, but lethal. The sister has a name . . . I actually love the name, so I think I want to use this name, if I ever do it.
Kris: Are you gonna tell me what it is?
Khloé: Tyla.
Kris: Oh, that’s so cute!
Khloé: True named her. Tyla, True, Tatum [Khloé’s son]. How cute! But here’s my thing. I own the embryo outright. [I] don’t even need to tell Tristan [Khloé’s ex] this is happening, ’cause I own them. They’re my embryos.
Kris: Wow.
Khloé: When we broke up, I had him sign that I could have it. And it’s legally done, yada, yada. So it’s my embryo. But I don’t know if I have the bandwidth to have another baby.
Then, the video switches to an interview-format interaction directly with Khloé, where she says:
It definitely bums me out that True might not have a sister. I love sisters, and I do believe that every girl needs a sister. And I personally would love another daughter. But also I’m getting older, and it’s a lot, and I just be like . . . I don’t know if this is something I can handle.
I have previously explained in National Review that IVF is a transactional process that necessarily treats a human child as a product that is owned (and sometimes subject to eugenic quality reviews, like commodities made in factories). In response, I received objections of the following nature in the comments section or via email: 1) Absolutely nobody is saying that IVF-made embryos or IVF-born children are something like property, 2) I [a reader] had my kids through IVF, and I have never thought of myself as owning them as property, 3) frozen embryos aren’t human beings, 4) Abigail, you’re just espousing Catholic fascist nonsense that has no basis in reality, and 5) you’ll change your mind if you struggle to conceive.
Well, here is something I never thought I would say: I am very grateful to Khloé Kardashian for validating my arguments. I think it would require a lot of explanation to accuse Khloé Kardashian of being “right-wing” or “bigoted against people who used IVF.” And for the record, she isn’t Catholic.
In just that short video snippet, Khloé implicitly or explicitly confirms that 1) frozen embryos are owned 2) they are regarded as property whose use — and ultimate fate — is determined by the owner, and 3) the ownership is contractually and legally regulated, not strictly decided by biological origin. I would further insist that Khloé is admitting that the frozen embryo is a human being. If Khloé reads National Review, she might object to that last point by saying the frozen embryo is something like a potential human being; I’d counter that referring to the frozen embryo as a “sister” and “daughter” with the name “Tyla” concedes that she is a human being.
I do wonder — though I don’t have the personal connections to directly ask Khloé herself — how she would feel if the frozen embryo were discarded, frozen forever, or never implanted, given that “Tyla” already has a distinct identity. Beneath this is a question about the boundaries of human psychological capacity. Is it possible to mentally dismiss the notion that a loss occurred when the embryo has already been conceived and conceptualized as a distinct individual? Put another way: If “Tyla” is thrown into the trash bin as medical waste, how can we think that “Tyla” never existed, or didn’t incur some type of harm? After all, she’s already been mentally added to the list of children: “Tyla, True, Tristan,” as Khloé said.
There’s a subtlety in the video that is worth appreciating. Khloé’s living and talking daughter, who is just eight years old, readily understood the preserved embryo as a whole, unique person. The little girl doesn’t think of her sister as nebulous material that could theoretically bear the traits of a human being one day under certain conditions. Instead, she registers her sister as a human being, one deserving of a name, despite being literally stuck in a freezer. Beyond serving as an evocative reminder of children’s innocence, this should point us to the deeper truth that smarty-pants adults attempt to dodge with elaborate philosophical claims: Talking endlessly about “personhood” and “viability” and “women’s autonomy” does not, and cannot, transform the embryo into something separate from the human species.