The Inhumanity of In Vitro Fertilization: A Mother's Story and a Doctor's Witness

My Journey Through In Vitro Fertilization

This mom's story, one baby born from 31 children created through IVF, is confirmed by an article in Crisis Magazine. Here are a few salient paragraphs from the Crisis article:

During the annual meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology this July, it was announced that five million babies have been born following in vitro fertilization procedures since 1978. Today, approximately 350,000 IVF babies are born annually, and the numbers are increasing.

An eerie silence hangs over these numbers. Unspoken is that most human beings created in the laboratory will die before even given a chance. It is commonly estimated that only one in six embryos created following IVF will make it to birth. However, the numbers published by Britain’s Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority may be more accurate. In July of 2011 Britain announced that for every child born by IVF thirty embryos were created.

This means that for a typical couple seeking IVF, somewhere between five and thirty of their children died so they could give birth to one. On a world-wide scale, this means that 30-150 million children have died because of IVF. In light of such staggering numbers the Church’s teaching makes perfect sense; it is “deeply disturbing” that “the number of embryos sacrificed is extremely high” (Dignitas personae n. 14). At best, IVF is like playing Russian Roulette with six people except only one chamber of the gun is empty. IVF treats the new human being as little more than a cluster of cells to be graded, selected, and discarded. As the Church has noted, “in other areas of medicine, ordinary professional ethics and the health care authorities themselves, would never allow a medical procedure which involved such a high number of failures and fatalities” (Dignitas personae n. 15).

Of course, the children born from IVF must be loved and valued. They are not responsible for the unloving way in which their lives began. When I read these two articles I thought of the king in the parable who gathered in people from the highways and biways to his wedding feast after the invited guests refused to come. These little ones along with the millions of chemically and surgically aborted babies are filling up heaven. It just proves that God ALWAYS brings good out of evil.

Pray for parents who, instead of picking up their cross of infertility and offering it to our good God, make themselves God instead and for doctors playing God under the guise of "helping."  The mom above writing under the name Jenny Vaughn shares a beautiful story of repentance. IVF doctor Anthony Caruso shares in the Crisis article that he also came to see IVF as a "'false and deceptive solution' and an alarming attack on life."

Note that both these conversion stories involved God working through the Church -- a retreat in the mom's case and a pastor witnessing to one of his flock in the doctor's.

Praised be to God! Never be afraid to share the truth in love!