In Vitro Fertilization

“In Vitro Fertilization” has enabled countless infertile couples to conceive and bare children. Despite the good that comes from this procedure, the Catholic Church still condemns IVF for good reason. This method of assisted conception is an affront to the dignity of human life, it desecrates the holiness of the marital relations between a husband and wife and, most importantly, it is responsible for the destruction of thousands of human lives.

 Through the “In Vitro” (in glass) Fertilization process a woman undergoes several weeks of intense hormonal therapy to stimulate the simultaneous development of multiple ova (eggs). These eggs are extracted from the woman’s ovaries just prior to ovulation and are mixed with a man’s sperm in a laboratory dish. In approximately two days, some of the fertilized eggs or “embryos” are injected into a woman’s uterus. The pregnancy is monitored. If multiple embryos implant in the uterine wall, the doctor will select the healthiest embryo and, typically, abort the rest. The embryos that were not inserted into the woman are frozen, in case the pregnancy doesn’t take. This allows repeated tries at pregnancy without necessitating further egg extractions. Some of the unused frozen embryos are discarded, some are subjected to experimentation, and some are indefinitely frozen with no clear future.

 Man is made in God’s image; therefore, human life is holy and deserves to be treated with dignity and respect. Increasingly, our society regards the earliest stages of life as a commodity that can be manipulated, bought, sold, and subjected to experimentation. We create and dispose of life at our convenience. At the moment of conception, these little humans are children of God. As such, they should not have to suffer the indignity of being conceived in a glass dish, being frozen, being experimented upon, being evaluated or being discarded as waste.  

 Conception of human life outside the uterus, apart from marital act profanes the sanctity of that act. The marital act is not for entertainment; it is a holy act that the Church defines as having dual purposes. It is procreative and unitive, consummating a marriage and allowing the husband and wife to cooperate with God in creating human life. Natural conception, within the unifying act of marital relations, reflects God’s order of things and makes a marriage holy.

 What can licitly be done for the thousands of tiny human lives that languish in cryopreservation chambers around the world? The Church has not been able to answer that question. There are no morally acceptable options. Prior to his becoming Pope Benedict XVI, Cardinal Ratzinger wrote “Those embryos which are not transferred into the body of the mother and are called ‘spare’ are exposed to an absurd fate, with no possibility of their being offered safe means of survival which can be licitly pursued.”

Some women are rescuing frozen embryos by adopting and carrying them to term, but this practice has led to considerable debate among church theologians. The consensus is that it is never permissible to achieve pregnancy through any method other than the marital act between a husband and wife, not even to save these “spare” lives. So far, there is no morally acceptable solution.

 This all comes down to a simple truth: we should not be playing God! Man has no business evaluating, selecting, and discarding human life. Furthermore, this practice is just the beginning of worse things to come. Designer babies are in our future. Scientific and medical industries will not restrain themselves from offering couples gender selection; hair color and eye color selection. How long will it be before scientists are tweaking the genetic structure to offer those who can pay the price more intelligent, athletic, or beautiful children? This is not science fiction. It is what the industries are working to achieve. IVF crossed the line from corrective medical procedures, which are good and moral, to an interference with natural procreation, an interference that is costing the lives of thousands of babies, condemning thousands more to an indefinite limbo with little hope of rescue, and profaning the sanctity of procreation within marriage.

 Contributed by Russ Tooke