Since it's the anniversary of the first successful in vitro fertilization procedure, a lot of stories are in the news about its use. A story by Arthur Caplan this morning on MSNBC caught my eye. Apparently, a 70-year-old Indian woman just had a baby conceived via IVF. The story goes on to dismiss all those silly fears people had about IVF when it was first introduced, and states,

Even the Catholic Church, which has never approved the break between sex and procreation, has taken a relatively benign view of the use of IVF by married couples.

I'm not sure why Caplan says that. It isn't true:

In summary, the Catholic Church condemns as gravely evil acts, both IVF in and of itself, and stem cell research performed on IVF embryos.

And it's not hard to see why:

Because of the availability of new culture media, it has recently become possible to let the embryos grow for up to seven days, by which time, only the most vigorous survive. This reduces the number of embryos implanted and increases the number of successful implantations, while also reducing the number of multiple pregnancies. Note that most embryos (up to 19 out of 20), conceived in IVF clinics eventually die. If they are not implanted, they are either "donated" for research, in which case they are killed, or they are kept in cold storage in very low temperatures after which most are disposed of, or eventually die. Since frequently several embryos are implanted at one time, multiple pregnancies occur. Not infrequently, early in pregnancy, some of these embryos are killed by injection of potassium chloride into the embryo's heart. This procedure is euphemistically called "fetal reduction."

I realize that infertility is a heartbreaking condition, but it amounts to selfishness and a lack of love to insist that any child you parent must be born of one's own body. Further, how much did you really want children, if you are willing to allow "the extras" to be killed, or used for medical research? Not to mention the procedure of egg donation, which is a misogynist's dream--the mechanization of the female body.

Labels: ivf