IVF: Mayhem and Murder—Well Disguised
- IVF: Mayhem and Murder—Well Disguised
“Finally, we have a baby!” “We are parents!” “Now we have our family!” Similar shouts of joy have been repeated millions of times throughout the world since Louise Brown, the first test-tube baby, was born in 1978. The growing scourge of infertility in Western countries has been defeated time and again, together with the searing anguish and disappointment of good-willed couples who have tried every means possible, but unsuccessfully, to have their own child and family. Turning to IVF (in vitro fertilization), usually as a last resort, has brought these couples the parental fulfillment so earnestly sought.
But is the technological wonder of IVF such a simple blessing to an infertile couple and to the child it provides them? To piece together an answer to this question as objectively as possible is the aim of this article.1
To be complete in this effort,2 we will look both at the defining steps of the medical procedure itself and the moral concerns about [End Page 391] what a couple who chooses IVF does, why they do it, and some crucial circumstances they suffer from their infertility, as well as those they suffer as a result of IVF. Throughout, we will be looking for harmony with or contradiction to any known truths about our human dignity that are involved.3 As we strive for objectivity at each stage of our investigation, this process of comparison and conscientious judgment will require both a well-informed and well-formed conscience.4
I
Already, the statistics of 2008 proclaimed that as many as six million couples of child-bearing age in the USA alone (around 10%) were infertile.5 Science is still unsure of the precise combination of causes. Some appear to come from our degraded nutrition, polluted environment, damaging pharmaceuticals, and so on. But without knowing the causes adequately, science has had no cure for what is an epidemic in Western cultures.6 To a rising number of infertile couples, the lack of a conception through natural sexual intercourse, sometimes for years, has brought cycles of dashed hopes and consequent frustration and sometimes despair. Even if many of these couples had reservations about IVF, they often could not resist the temptation to choose whatever would work. Only scientific help became important, and any [End Page 392] moral considerations usually faded from their thinking and choosing.7
An additional fact is that a growing number of women who delay child-bearing until that ability weakens or ceases turn to IVF. Then, recently, more and more lesbians wanting to become mothers are making the same choice. In fact, the world’s first “throuple” came to be when three women “married” in Massachusetts in August, 2013. One of the three, pregnant with donor sperm through IVF, has agreed to bear one child for each of the three.8
In consequence of this increased demand, we have seen the number of IVF clinics increase rapidly. And there is great financial profit from offering this medical service. While actual costs and rates of success vary widely among clinics, couples can usually pay $10–15,000 per attempt,9 with only a 6–35% chance of a conception and birth.10 Moreover, IVF is virtually uncontrolled by government oversight to insure high medical standards. Each clinic is left to its own sense of honor and professionalism. It was only in 2003 in the USA that IVF clinics even had to register themselves with the government.11
II
There are two types of IVF, depending on the source of the gametes used. Each type raises different moral judgments about whether the [End Page 393] procedure is in full harmony with what it is to be human or whether it is anti-human in any important ways.12 If the egg and the sperm used are from the childless couple, the IVF is termed “homologous.” This results in only two parents for the possible child, and therefore this aspect of the procedure is not immoral. Most often, though, the sperm used are obtained from the prospective father by way of masturbation. This sexual act is obviously separate from...
