What’s Wrong With IVF?
Have you ever considered the moral implications of In Vitro Fertilization? Since 1978, IVF has brought more than 12 million babies into the world, but it also raises grave ethical questions. Is IVF moral? Does it honor God’s design for marriage and family?
This post will uncover the truth behind IVF and its far-reaching impact on society.
1. Why IVF Is Not Pro-Life
IVF is a process that creates test-tube babies by bypassing the natural means of procreation between husband and wife. The term in vitro in Latin refers to a petri dish. The process involves superovulating the mother with powerful drugs to encourage her body to produce eggs. These eggs are then extracted and united with sperm to create embryos in a petri dish.
IVF frequently involves implanting multiple embryos in the womb, with the intention of aborting some of them. Dr. John Haas, PhD, S.T.L., explains: “Here they monitor the babies in utero to see if they have defects or are judged to be less healthy than the others. Then, they eliminate those ‘less desirable’ babies by injecting potassium chloride into the baby’s heart. The potassium chloride kills the baby within minutes…”
Statistics show that only about 7% of embryos created result in live births. The remaining 93% are frozen indefinitely, miscarried, or discarded.
2. IVF Cuts Procreation from Marriage
A second reason why IVF is immoral is that it violates the exclusivity of the marital union. It bypasses the marital act and transfers the creation of human life to a cold petri dish. This process contradicts natural law and God's design for the family.
Marriage is a sacred union between husband and wife, meant to generate children naturally according to God’s plan. To override this natural order distorts human nature and disrupts the moral fabric that holds the family together.
IVF further undermines the sacred union of marriage by introducing anonymous donor gametes, which involve third-party “donors.” As a result, many children conceived through IVF will never know their biological parents, leading to confusion and a sense of loss.
Christine Whipp, a British writer conceived through anonymous sperm donation, lamented how her conception was the outcome of “a verbal contract, a financial transaction, and a cold, clinical harnessing of medical technology.”
It is a mistake to view children as a right instead of a gift from God.
3. IVF Favors Homosexual Unions
IVF opens the door to a cascade of sins. It allows homosexual couples – which are 100% sterile – to masquerade as biological parents. By using IVF and surrogacy, same-sex couples attempt to assume the role of biological parents, even though they are not naturally capable of conceiving a child. The process often involves hiring a surrogate mother, which commodifies human life, turning a woman’s womb into a rented vessel and reducing the child to a mere object.
We are witnessing the outcome of so-called “marriage equality”: Children are bought and sold to make what is anti-natural appear normal.
4. IVF Is Dehumanizing
IVF clinics use terms such as “products” of conception, “fetal reduction,” and “reproductive technology.” The idea that we are created in the image and likeness of God is missing.
Human embryos are treated as objects or commodities. Unwanted humans are discarded like unwanted parts in a factory. And those deemed undesirable are killed.
Another troubling aspect of IVF is the demand for custom babies. In countries where it is more desirable to have a male child, IVF facilitates the killing of female babies in favor of male offspring. Some clinics will pay college students up to $50,000 for their gametes, provided they meet certain criteria, such as being smart, attractive, or athletic. Customers order a baby just as they would buy a new car. It is dehumanizing.
5. IVF Causes Birth Defects
According to a UCLA study, infants born through IVF have a higher incidence of birth defects compared to naturally conceived babies. Specifically, greater rates of malformations of the eye, heart, and genitourinary system were detected.
"Our findings revealed a significant association between the use of assisted reproductive technologies, such as certain types of in vitro fertilization, and an increased risk of birth defects," said lead author of the study, Dr. Lorraine Kelley-Quon.
6. IVF Plays God
The temptation of our time is to play God. Instead of submitting to the natural order established by our Creator, modern culture seeks to break every barrier and satisfy every personal desire.
IVF tells us there is no problem manufacturing human life in a laboratory. However, the practice is a haughty overreach that usurps God’s divine prerogative of creating life.
Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira warns against the utopia of a man-made paradise based on science and technology. “In such a world, the Redemption by Our Lord Jesus Christ has no place, for man will have overcome evil with science and will have made the earth a technologically delightful paradise.”
At its core, IVF reduces life to a product of human manipulation rather than a miracle of God’s creation.
7. The Catholic Church Condemns IVF
The Papal Encyclical Donum Vitae condemns IVF because it “entrusts the life and identity of the embryo into the power of doctors and biologists and establishes the domination of technology over the origin and destiny of the human person.” The encyclical mentions how “the gift of human life must be actualized in marriage through the specific and exclusive acts of husband and wife, in accordance with the laws inscribed in their persons and in their union.”
Although IVF may seem like a compassionate answer to infertility, it is fraught with moral dangers: it plays God, destroys innocent life, violates marriage, and dehumanizes children.
More than ever, we must reaffirm God's design for marriage and family.