LIFE, MARRIAGE & FAMILY MATTERS: IVF is never the answer
By Mark Griffin, Director of Life, Marriage & Family
When a desire is disordered, it’s easy to find many reasons as to why it should never be acted upon. However, when a desire is ordered, but the outcome is not achieved, the temptation can arise to take disordered actions towards achieving a rightly desired end.
A good example of this would be when a couple has a rightly ordered desire for children (i.e. children within marriage) but are having difficulty conceiving. The world will tell them that science has advanced to a point where the fulfillment of their desire can be aided by IVF (In vitro fertilisation) and, as their desire is rightly ordered, the ends justify the means. However, this is not the case.
Essentially, the IVF process involves the harvesting of multiple eggs from the mother, along with sperm from the father. Technicians will attempt to fertilise the eggs in a glass petri dish (‘in vitro’ literally means ‘in glass’).
One of the fertilised embryos is then implanted into the woman’s uterus and, assuming the process goes smoothly, will develop throughout the remainder of the pregnancy. Any remaining embryos are either discarded or frozen indefinitely.
There are many moral problems with this process. The Catechism of the Catholic Church speaks to some of them when it states, “A child is not something owed to one, but is a gift… In this area, only the child possesses genuine rights: the right to be the fruit of the specific act of the conjugal love of his parents, and the right to be respected as a person from the moment of his conception,” (CCC, 2378).
Parents are to accept children willingly from God. Whether our Lord chooses to send them one or many, they are called to cooperate with His will. However, cooperation with His will requires more. If a desired good is not forthcoming in God’s plan, a couple should never strive to achieve the desired outcome by immoral means.
It could be argued that, because of advancements in science and technology, people are losing faith in God. Just because a person ‘can’ do something due to technological advancements, it doesn’t necessarily follow that they ‘should’.
The moral implications of any such advancements should always be evaluated. God’s plan for humanity is perfect. It shouldn’t be forgotten that it is humanity that has been making a mess of this plan from the beginning, not God.
Sometimes, an inability to conceive can be the result of something simple, like unhealthy habits that don’t support fertility. However, even if there is no clear explanation as to what the difficulty might be, married couples should always keep faith in the Lord.
Trust that He will bring them together at the opportune time to conceive a child, if He so wills it, all the while ensuring that they are as healthy and prepared as possible to nurture any resulting new life.