text: - You wrote “the Eastern Church”. There are Eastern Catholics and they accept the Immaculate Conception.
  
  - You wrote “does not accept the Immaculate Conception”. In fact, the Orthodox Church as a whole has never considered the Immaculate Conception.
  
  - You wrote “a theological issue is how Mary would pass on her humanity to her son if she were a notch higher than humanity itself”. It is not the Catholic belief that Mary was “a notch higher than humanity itself”. She was a human in every aspect, including free will.
  
  - I wrote “That is not completely accurate.” Perhaps a more apt phrasing would be “it is much more complicated than that.”
  
  There is actually a wide variety of opinion in Orthodoxy about these matters, both currently and historically. I take it you’re Russian Orthodox?