Yesterday, July 12, my sister-in-law, the widow of a favorite brother, called to wish me happy birthday. It was a smooth friendly talk, going over the kids and grandkids. Three of her grandkids, ages 8, 5, and 2, were conceived by IVF. I had warned my brother of the immorality of this when I heard about the first IVF baby. Yesterday my sister-in-law said how great it was that science now makes it possible for those who want to have children to have children.
I wanted to give her my opinion, but I didn’t. I don’t think any moral arguments would out-weigh her love for her living grandchildren and her happiness that her kids could have a loving family of kids.
About ten years ago, I was surprised to find out that a business I owned was involved with a service soliciting surrogate mothers among college students in San Diego. I called the company to tell them we would not run their ads or provide internet help to them. The woman I spoke with said her name was Amber. At first I thought she was German.
She talked to me about how wonderful it was that the young women who served as surrogates could make $50,000 and thus pay for their college education. I asked for details about how the surrogacy was done. She explained that after fertilization but before implantation, the fertilized eggs were categorized. There were AA, AB, BB, and so on. This way the future parents could pick the best future babies.
When I said, well, this was interesting, but I could not cooperate with this practice, Amber pleaded with me, Did I not know how much a Chinese family wanted a baby, how much babies meant to them?
It took me a while after I hung up to realize what was going on. What embryos would a Chinese couple consider AA? Not ones with female chromosomes, certainly. As far as I know California still allows without restriction for selective fertilization and surrogacy.
I’ve been around the block with Catholic parishes in California. I’ve heard homilies – okay, somewhat rarely – about abortion. But I can’t say I’ve heard anything about gay sex, and never about in-vitro fertilization.
– from a California Catholic reader
This is spot-on. In my extended family there are IVF twins, and now we have a recent child born via sperm donor. All parents are Catholic and attended Catholic schools and universities. I expressed my opinions and concerns when the family members were first considering the options, but I stayed quiet once the children were born, for the same reason as the author’s. I am just confounded by all of this. The quality of Catholic religious education has obviously failed our young people. It’s just not strong enough to counteract the lures of secular society. I’m also coming to understand that the grandparents of these babies also failed their children by their own religious weaknesses.
This is a very thought-provoking post. I have preached on the evils of abortion and sexual sin (straight and gay). And, God’s mercy, forgiveness and healing. Catholics have aborted their babies at about the same “rate” as the general population, so I’m conscious of that when preaching. The need for evangelization is evident. Yet, I have not preached on IVF, even though I know I have a pastor and bishop who would stand behind me. (This is unlike some deacons I know who, after preaching a pro-life homily, were removed from their parishes’ preaching schedules.) Yet, I wonder how I would tie the Scriptures to IVF in a homily. The need to teach about the evil of IVF is apparent, but is the homily the best place for that? Teaching Catholic medical ethics as well as some other issues might be more appropriately addressed in other contexts. Let’s pray for creativity in how to teach Catholic truths to our people. This would be true not only for clergy (bishops, priests and deacons), but for catechists, Catholic school teachers and parents as well.
Below is linked a related article:
https://zeale.co/news/articles/new-analysis-finds-major-care-gaps-before-patients-begin-ivf?loop_cat=prolife_score%3Floop_cat%3Dpolicy_score&utm_campaign=129541854-The%20LOOP&utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8ecM5VsgC4xVuBnk_3SroToILJOAsP8yPrvn2wlzD1kYL_ouLOLqaL7dszH0v-PzupQfrrkx9YFhM8xVRQDWFNLLWi1lIAVfeZ-CLpuWSKao5wkjI&_hsmi=33162979&utm_content=33162979&utm_source=hs_email
Yes, IVF is immoral, but it’s hard for the Church to make a convincing argument against it in the minds of most people because the Church’s position entails that it was wrong to bring IVF children into existence. Most people think, “How can the Church be opposed to the existence of this beautiful, wonderful baby?” In their minds, they believe the Church is saying that the world would have been better without IVF children in it. Yeah, that’s what the Church’s teaching entails if you think about it, but that’s a corollary of the Church’s teaching, not the main principle that the Church is trying to uphold. It gets even thornier when you consider that some IVF babies have gone on to make good contributions to the world, yet they should never have existed if the Church’s teaching had been followed.
Yes, IVF is immoral, but … and off you go down the rabbit hole of disparagement.
Children are not responsible for the sins of their parents. One can love the child and not regret his or her existence but repent of the manner in which one conceived the child. I listened to a secular radio station years ago discussing sperm donations for in-vitro fertilization. One man called in and told how he had donated sperm around 100 times for college money all in the same area. Many children thus conceived are afraid of marrying their own siblings.
Sperm donation is immoral. IVF is immoral. Premarital (and extramarital) sex is immoral– babies born out-of-wedlock in those situations is a cruel and immoral act, to the child. Former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenenegger had an affair with the family’s housekeeper while in office, and conceived a son out-of-wedlock. The maid also was married. At the same time, Schwarzenegger’s wife, Maria, conceived a son by him. Not fair to these children. Both Schwarzenegger and the maid eventually got divorces. It is easy to preach about all of these subjects– straight from the Bible, objective truth. Don’t be sensitive about it. This is very important. God meant for babies to he born only in the loving, conjugal act of Marriage. All else is wrong, against God’s Will. To try to conceive “test tube babies”– as they were once called– in a petri dish in a lab– is morally wrong. People need to stop being so selfish, overly-sensitive and reactionary about sins– and listen to homilies at church objectively, like a mature grown-up. Learn obedience to Christ’s teachings, and live according to God’s Will. If a married couple is infertile, they can pray to adopt a child. We used to have good sermons all the time, before Vatican II, about Christian Morality. Very informative, helpful and supportive. “No baloney.” Good for young people, too. Everyone must learn chastity, self-control.
It must be hard to tell a child that they were not conceived naturally by their parents. Instead, they were conceived “in vitro” (Latin for “in glass”) in a glass petri dish in a lab. This process is unnatural, and is totally against Biblical teachings. Catholic and Protestant clergy should preach against it. Of course, all children must be loved and welcomed. But their conception should be right with God. Not fair, for a child to be coldly conceived outside their mother’s womb, in a glass petri dish, as a “test tube baby.”.
Approximately 70-85% of IVF embryos never result in a live birth. Millions of surplus ivf embryos remain in frozen storage, worldwide. After completing their families, some couples discard these embryos (50.5 %), some keep them in frozen storage (26.4%), and some donate them to research or to other couples. Not fair. I think IVF should be illegal.
I once went with a friend to a nice restaurant serving Middle Eastern food. The friend told me that the restaurant owner could not find a wife, but badly wanted a son to inherit his successful business someday. So he finally did a very strange and shocking thing. He paid a college girl with the looks he favored, to be a surrogate mother, and an IVF baby was created using his sperm and her egg. He got his desired baby boy, who is now grown up, college-age, looks like his Middle Eastern dad, and will inherit his father’s business someday. The boy grew up with no mother, only his father, and the father’s hired employees and friends at his business. A sadly motherless child, conceived in a petri dish, carried to term by some well-paid college girl he will never know as his “mother.” This should be illegal.