By Kate Roberts
Maybe it’s a coincidence…or maybe I’m just paying attention.
Have you noticed it? Everywhere I seem to look, it’s that acronym flashing at me again. “IVF!” I see it in the headlines, I see it on social media, I see it in the books I’m reading, movies I’m watching, podcasts I’m listening to…and all I’m hearing is praise. IVF is portrayed as the near-perfect solution for couples of all configurations.
I can understand the appeal of IVF, especially for couples struggling with the heartbreak and pain of infertility. Not only do I compassionately understand the appeal of IVF for struggling couples, but I also, like many who will read this article, know and love someone born from IVF. Certainly, it is wonderful when new life comes into the world, and we celebrate our brothers and sisters born from IVF, proclaiming that their lives are indispensable and important no matter the circumstances of their conception! We affirm that children conceived through IVF were formed by God and redeemed by Jesus. They are blessings to us and to the world.
Yet, Christian conscience causes us to also confess that IVF isn’t the near-perfect solution society would have us believe. IVF has unintended consequences. Because of the fallen world we live in, IVF doesn’t always uphold life. How? First, it makes children commodities. Here’s how:
The cost of one IVF cycle can be anywhere from $15,000 to $30,000, according to Forbes Health. Many fertility centers recommend that couples plan to undergo up to four IVF cycles. Not only is this initial cost extraordinary, but embryos who are left frozen require “storage costs” of $400 to $600 per year.
IVF treatment also requires something called “embryo grading.” Embryo grading is a procedure that evaluates the “quality” of each embryo produced during an IVF cycle. The grade helps fertility treatment doctors decide which are the “best” embryos, which day those embryos should be transferred into the mother’s womb, and how many embryos should be transferred. Embryos receive grades of “A”, “B”, “C”, or “D”, with “A” being the best. The higher the grade an embryo receives, the more likely the embryo is considered a good “candidate” to be implanted into the mother’s womb. Embryos with a lower grade are monitored to see if they develop into a better grade, but most are typically left frozen or are discarded.
Fertility clinics also use something called “Preimplantation Genetic Testing” or PGT, which examines embryos for genetic defects before implantation. Any embryo with genetic defects is not considered a good candidate for implantation and is therefore discarded. According to fertility.org, “It (PGT) was originally just used to increase healthy IVF births, and that is still the predominant reason for its use. PGT will undoubtedly be used more often in the future by parents to look for traits in embryo genetics they want to pass on to their children and selecting to not pass on other traits.” Other genetic profiling can be done through IVF that allows a couple to choose embryos that will have specific hair color, eye color, and gender.
It’s clear, the medical practices surrounding IVF do not treat human beings with dignity and as children of God. God doesn’t want us to grade His children and perform testing on them to ensure that a baby will have blue eyes versus brown. It is not His design that the gift of new life be reduced to a commodity where couples purchase, pick, and choose only the “best” embryos, the ones least likely to have special needs or genetic diseases.
In this sense, IVF offers the narrative that we can eliminate suffering in this world by only bringing the “best” into it, but as Christians, we know suffering cannot be eliminated until we stand before the throne and the Lamb (Revelation 7:9). In contrast to IVF, God welcomes, unites, and delights in all of His children, “for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). All people are precious in His sight, and we have the privilege of supporting and upholding human life on earth while God sustains it as He designed. As difficult as it may be, our compassion for couples struggling with infertility should not lead to policies that allow children to be treated as products to be purchased, sold, or used for research.
Fertility treatments are an attempt to alleviate the pain that our fallen world brings. And that pain is real. There are other strategies besides IVF, some medical and highly effective, for addressing infertility. Speaking the truth about in-vitro fertilization is not an attempt to minimize the pain couples struggling with infertility are facing; rather disclosing the life issues associated with in-vitro fertilization allow us to protect the children that are harmed through IVF.
IVF doesn’t just make children commodities, it also prevents them from life. There are currently one million embryos on ice in the United States; one million unique human individuals are sitting in a freezer, waiting for someone to decide if they should be discarded, donated to research, or donated to another couple. Even more shocking? Only 7% of children created through IVF will be born alive (Them Before Us). These unintended consequences of IVF create quite the ethical dilemma. The more embryos we freeze, the bigger the ethical dilemma becomes. What should be done?
As 4-life Christians, we want to uphold life. Unfortunately, IVF often does harm to God’s littlest children, denying them the life-affirming care they need. Human beings have inherent dignity and worth; they are never meant to be scientific endeavors that can be discarded at will. We are called to speak the truth in love for the sake of our littlest neighbor. We are called to act for them.
Sharing the truth in love about IVF is part of speaking for life with a Gospel-motivated voice. It means telling your neighbor how their life is valuable, affirming that their identity is found in Christ, and reminding them that Christ has won the victory over death and the devil. Thanks to that victory, we are able to rejoice and be glad that because of Christ’s sacrifice for us, we may have life and have it abundantly, even when we face crosses like infertility (John 10:10). Speaking the truth in love about IVF does NOT mean that we devalue someone whose life was created through IVF technology, and it does NOT mean that we do not weep with those struggling with infertility. Instead, it means upholding every life with love.
The question is this: do we value life and see pregnancy as a gift from the Creator and Author of life? If the answer is yes, then we need to look hard at the reality of IVF.
If we see life and pregnancy as God intended, as the Church traditionally has and steadfastly should see life, then there is no question about whether we should be speaking up about IVF technology.
Knowing the facts about IVF and how to speak the truth in love to our neighbors is the best way for Christians to broach this difficult topic. And Y4Life has the resources you need to do just that. In addition to articles through the on-line LFL library, Y4Life has two infographics on IVF (Access them HERE.) as well as a podcast episode at Youth4Life (Click HERE.) Also, feel free to reach out to Michelle, Director of Y4Life, for more ways you can be ready to speak 4 Life.
Finally, if you are struggling with guilt or grief over involvement with IVF and would like reassurance of God’s grace, please reach out to your pastor or to Word of Hope, LFL’s 24-hour hotline that serves those facing life issues. Contact Word of Hope at 888.217.8679 or email info@word-of-hope.org.