A. Facts About In Vitro Fertilization
1. How is in vitro fertilization performed?
The stages followed in IVF (In Vitro Fertilization and Embryo Transfer) are:
- Obtaining sperm and oocytes, which are placed for several hours in a culture medium in a glass receptacle (*in vitro*) until fertilization is confirmed.
- Transferring the resulting embryos to another culture medium where they are incubated for a couple of days.
- Selecting healthy embryos and discarding the others. The healthy ones are divided into two groups.
- Some are transferred to the woman's uterus. The remainder are cryopreserved at -196 °C for future use or experimentation.
2. Results of in vitro fertilization?
Historically, successful live births occur in only about 15% to 25% of attempts, often requiring five to six interventions, accompanied by the destruction or freezing of more than ten human embryos per woman.
3. Cost of in vitro fertilization?
Financial costs are substantial, ranging between $25,000 and $70,000 or more. The psychological toll (anxiety, frustration, dashed hopes) is severe for the couple, particularly for the woman who undergoes repeated and physically demanding hormonal and surgical procedures.
B. Ethical Aspects of In Vitro Fertilization
1. What ethical difficulties does in vitro fertilization raise?
IVF gravely wounds human dignity in several ways:
- It offends the dignity of the parents, who are reduced to biological suppliers providing raw material to a laboratory. Fertilization is effected not by the conjugal act of the spouses, but by laboratory technicians, depersonalizing the transmission of life.
- It offends the dignity of the child, who is manufactured rather than begotten, treated as a laboratory product inside a glass dish.
- The child is subjected to total dominion, screened, and destroyed if found defective. Even if techniques were to avoid all biological errors, the commodification remains.
- It treats human beings like animals produced through selective breeding. IVF is a process contrary to human dignity.
2. Further ethical issues in current practice?
Major ethical violations include:
- Multiple human embryos are deliberately destroyed or discarded in the process.
- Numerous embryos are cryopreserved, placed in a state of suspended animation that violates their natural development and exposes them to death.
- Frozen human beings become commercial commodities bought, sold, or used for destructive research.
C. More Serious Cases of In Vitro Fertilization
1. Heterologous in vitro fertilization
This refers to the use of donor gametes from third parties outside the marriage. This fractures parenthood: a child may have the genetics of one woman, gestate in the womb of a second, and be raised by a third, with donor sperm from an anonymous male. This deprives the child of their genealogical identity and the right to know their biological parents.
2. Surrogate motherhood
A child is commissioned and a woman is contracted as a gestational incubator, obligated by contract to surrender the infant at birth. The child is treated as a commercial commodity to be bought and sold, exploiting the surrogate and degrading the profound bond of maternal gestation.
3. Children for same-sex couples
Commissioning children through IVF and surrogacy denies the child either a mother or a father, intentionally depriving them of the complementary maternal and paternal love essential for balanced psychological and emotional development.
D. Prohibition of In Vitro Fertilization
1. Who desires in vitro fertilization?
IVF is sought by:
- Couples who suffer from infertility and deeply desire a child at any cost.
- Commercial fertility clinics and laboratories that generate enormous profits from these procedures.
2. Is it wrong to desire a child?
No; desiring children is noble and good. However, a good intention cannot justify morally flawed means. Just as it is wrong to obtain a child through adultery or theft, so too in vitro fertilization is ethically impermissible because it violates the dignity of the child and the conjugal union.
3. Should in vitro fertilization be prohibited?
While legal prohibitions should be prudent, IVF and embryonic experimentation should be legally banned because:
- Prohibition is the only effective means to protect the right to life (abortion) and the legal dignity of the human embryo.
- It protects couples from medical exploitation and psychological heartbreak, directing them toward solutions consistent with their dignity and that of children, such as medical treatment of infertility or adoption.
- It prevents the commodification and destruction of human life.