IVF is a process that has immense moral and ethical implications that must be taken into consideration. It destroys life in the process of trying to manufacture life. It opens the door to eugenic practices, encourages surrogacy, reduces the marital act to a laboratory procedure and puts millions of human beings “on ice”. To cite a statement from Bishop Thomas of Toledo and Bishop Barron of Winona-Rochester: “The IVF industry treats human beings like products and freezes or kills millions of children who are not selected for transfer to a womb or do not survive. Tuesday’s executive order promoting IVF is thus fatally flawed and stands in regrettable contrast to the promising pro-life actions of the Administration last month.” The statement further addresses the need to respect life by respecting the dignity of every human being. There are alternative reproductive technologies that don’t commodify and destroy human life in its nascent stages.
The other part of the government’s plan, which addresses the actual problems of infertility, should be the focus. As also stated by the bishops, “For the sake of couples trying to bring precious new life into the world, we look forward to working with the Administration to expand support for restorative reproductive medicine that can help ethically treat often-overlooked root causes of infertility.”
Please send a message to President Trump, asking him to reconsider the government plan that expands the practice of IVF and to focus on other assisted reproductive technologies that respect life.