The Case Against In Vitro Fertilization

Even though most Christians, and I hope most common-sense humans, will condemn the practice of grading embryos and freezing excess embryos, this is unlikely to slow the normalization of IVF as a method of conception. Many people will embrace IVF for the promise of remedying the grief of infertility. IVF demand has increased primarily to meet the demands of infertile women and couples for a child. Dr. Best notes, “the diagnosis...is so distressing for a couple that they may not stop to think about the treatment....they are prepared to go to extraordinary lengths to get the child they desire.” Indeed, the demand for IVF and the demand for the inputs into IVF – donor sperm, donor eggs, and surrogate wombs – all revolve around achieving the human desire for a child. The financial, emotional, and physical costs are seen as small burdens in light of this one good, which is often held as central to personal identity. In Christian circles, the association of fertility with blessing and infertility with barrenness further impresses on many the importance of children to personal fulfillment. (See, for example, Amy Laura Hall’s Conceiving Parenthood: American Protestantism and the Spirit of Reproduction.) It is common for couples, including evangelical Christian couples, to resort to IVF as a means to have children after an infertility diagnosis.