Letter to Representatives: End IVF and Surrogacy
July 17, 2014
Dear {Governor Kasich},
I have been horrified to read about the heartless way our society treats some children, enabled and facilitated by new technologies. Especially saddening is the recent case of Sherri Shepherd, who ordered the creation of a child that she now says she wants nothing to do with. (See, e.g., http://acculturated.com/the-brave-new-world-of-ivf/ )
Please do everything you can to make sure that in-vitro fertilization, surrogacy, human cloning, and other dystopian abuses of technology are illegal and will not happen in Ohio. New technologies will come, but that doesn’t mean we have to let them be used for evil. Not here.
I know you have been a great pro-life governor (with the exception of your support of Medicaid expansion, which is anti-life—see http://www.cincinnatirighttolife.org/2013/03/18/medicaid-expansion-funds-planned-parenthood/ ), for which thank you. Keep up the good work.
Best regards,
[Chillingworth]
July 17, 2014 at 10:52 PM
I’ve never really delved too deeply into the issue of IVF, so I can’t claim to have a well-developed position on the issue. Pro-natalist that I am, I’m inclined to view favorably a technology that enables otherwise infertile couples to have children. What motivates your opposition to IVF? It’s an honest question; as I said it’s not an issue I’ve had occasion to research. I’ve got to believe that you have a better argument than an isolated tragedy. (Speaking of which, I’d bet ten to one that a child born following IVF has a much, much lower probability of ending up “unwanted” than a child brought into the world the “old-fashioned” way.)
July 18, 2014 at 10:12 AM
Sure, though if you click the link above and read about the other example there that I didn’t mention, it raises the possibility that there are other moral considerations besides whether the child is “wanted”. ( http://www.slate.com/articles/life/dear_prudence/2013/02/dear_prudence_my_wife_and_i_came_from_the_same_sperm_donor.html , man and his wife, both presumably created by IVF, turn out to be half siblings.)
I agree with you that argument by anecdote is not necessarily the best way to form opinions on the great questions (though apparently I think it’s a great way to try to tell my representatives that I feel strongly about the issue). The shortest abstract logical argument I would give against IVF is that the way it is (I think) invariably practiced (though in theory it could be done otherwise) involves the creation of not one but many embryos—i.e., human beings—most of which at some point in the process either die or are put in a freezer somewhere, either of which I think qualifies as “dystopian”.
On the other hand, as I think about it, I’m not so sure telling the story of, say, Sherri Shepherd is a bad way to reason about what is right. While I assume her case is atypical of IVF customers, I think it may illustrate some of what I think is inherently wrong with surrogacy—but then, isn’t IVF open to some of the same kind of criticism as surrogacy? Children should be the result of a marriage, not a business transaction. It should not be impossible for us to say who a child’s “parents” are, whom he should turn to, and who has the responsibility of taking care of him.
But I would be happy to rest on the abortion argument alone.
July 18, 2014 at 10:54 AM
I am also very interested in what the church has to say on the subject.
The Catholic Church is the first place to go to, being the largest single institution to have considered these questions (containing about half of Christendom, https://enjoymentandcontemplation.wordpress.com/2013/01/10/christians-a-plurality-worldwide-about-one-third-of-all-people/ ), as well as (I would say) being part of the church and so guided by the Holy Spirit. The short answer is that the Catholic Church has considered these questions at some length and concluded unambiguously that IVF is morally wrong. See, e.g.,
http://www.catholic.com/quickquestions/how-can-the-church-deny-the-right-of-women-to-use-ivf-if-they-cannot-conceive-a-child
http://www.catholic.com/quickquestions/isnt-the-churchs-teaching-on-in-vitro-fertilization-unfair-to-couples-who-cannot-conc
For a longer answer, those pages direct us to the Catholic Church’s “Instruction on Respect for Human Life in Its Origin and on the Dignity of Procreation: Replies to Certain Questions of the Day”, http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_19870222_respect-for-human-life_en.html . Excerpts: