1. What is IVF ?
IVF stands for “in-vitro fertilization” and consists in putting spermatocytes (sperm from the male) in contact with oocytes (ovum from the female) inside a test tube to facilitate fertilization. The fertilized ovum or zygote (an embryo) is then transfered to the uterus where they continue their normal development.
2. How is this carried out?
The sperm is usually obtained from the man by masturbation while the oocytes are from the mother or a donor by puncture of the ovary.
3. Why is it wrong?
Several moral principles are violated with IVF:
(I) If the donors are not married to each other (as in a heterologous artificial insemination & fertilization i.e. a donor other than the married couple), it infringe’s the child’s right to be born of parents known to him and bound to each other in marriage.
(II) If only the married couple in involved, the procreative act (in the creatiion of the baby) is disassociated from the act of sexual intercourse of the parents. Thus the unitive & procreative significance of the marital act is separated and the child is not the fruit of the sexual union but rather of a technological process. This is against the dignity of the child who is now merely the product of such a process. The child has a right to be the fruit of the marital act of the love between his parents.
(III) As usually 1 to 4 embryoes are transferred to the uterus to improve the posibility of pregnancy, a large number of embryos must be produced to proceed with IVF. The unused enbryos are then ultimately either discarded or donated for destructive research, both of which involes the killing of the embryos. As the embryos are undoubtedly innocent human lives, (we all started our lives as embryos), their delibrate killing violates the embryo’s (the child’s) right to life.
(IV) The freezing of the spare embryos constitutes an offence against the respect due to human beings by exposing them to the grave risks of health or harm to their physical integrity.
(V) Obtaining semen (sperm) by masturbation is morally illicit. Why masturbation is intrinsically disordered.
4. When is fertility treatment morally licit??
So called “improper” artificial insemination is licit (in the following techniques) whereby they merely facilitate and not substitute the conjugal act. Viz. dilation of the uterine cervix, collection of the semen found in the vaginal recess and its ulterior reintroduction into the uterus – so that sexual union can result in pregnancy.
Ref: New Moral Treatment
5. What moral options are there for married infertile couples then?
The Gospel shows that physical sterility is not an absolute evil. Spouses who suffer from infertility after exhausting legitimate medical procedures should unite themselves with the Lord’s sufferings. They can give expression to their generosity through the adoption of children or live out their parental instinct by having “spiritual” children, by caring and loving for others in a deeper way. A child is always a gift and not a right, and respecting it as gift means we do not have a right to demand to have a child by any means.
6. Is the Church insensitive to the needs such couples?
No, as the Church is both mother & teacher to all her members, she acts in a way that is in the best interest for all in the light of the Gospel values and the moral laws of God. These involves the dignity of the unborn child, his right to life, and to be “begotten” by his parents’ mutually self giving love in the marital act and not “made” by a technological process. The Church also recognizes the meritorious and redemptive value of human suffering of the infertile couple and challenges them to a more supernatural vision of their parental calling.
