Given the heated discussion we’ve been having about whether pro-life people (or people in general) should oppose in vitro fertilization, I was intrigued by a note I got from a pro-life doctor/activist in England.
Here’s his analysis of the data put out by England’s Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, a government agency, about what happened to embryos created during this process in 2005:
214,177 embryos were ‘used’ (i.e. successfully created).
68,083 of those were transferred to women:
“What happened to the other two thirds? The HFEA states that 43,892 were frozen and stored, 230 were donated to other women, 4,338 were donated for research, but 97,634 were euphemistically ‘discarded’.
So there we have it. Transferred, 31.8%; frozen, 20.5%, donated, 0.1%; for research, 2.0% and discarded, 45.6%. The latter two categories were destined for immediate and deliberate destruction – a total of 101,972 human embryos, or almost half of those created by IVF, destroyed in just one year.”
Again, those who don’t believe that life begins at conception will not be bothered by this. But those who do, why do you not consider this a holocaust as well?
posted January 9, 2009 at 11:08 am
From my point of view there is, of course, no reason to be bothered. But my guess is that the other side does not want to make an issue of something that will end up with them looking like a tortilla that has been stepped on by an elephant.
That would be a fight they could not even last long enough to get into the ring over.
posted January 9, 2009 at 12:42 pm
On an unrelated topic, Steve, 90% of your most popular posts concern Pastor Warren and the Saddleback Forum. Are people truly drawn to this so adimately, do you write about it more often, or a combination thereof? I found it mildly fascinating at best, though thanks to you I’ve learned a lot more about Warren and Saddleback and find myself in agreement with him on so many socio-political issues.
Guess you’ve got to know your readers in this business and give the people what they want.
On the topic of frozen embryos I can only speak for myself. I guess the ‘rational’ part of me tends to disregard them as biomaterial though I succumb to the Church’s teaching and thus should diligently be coming to their defense. Assuming, for argument’s sake that life does begin at conception, should we then have mass funerals for the embryos who are casualties of this ‘holocaust’ the same as we do when we come across discarded aborted fetuses? I’m interested to hear what other pro-lifers have to say on this topic.
I do however think that a watermelon being stepped on by an elephant would be a better analogy as a tortilla in all probability would look the same after being stepped on, Charles.
posted January 9, 2009 at 1:13 pm
Charles Cosimano,
I love the great visual imagery in your posts. Relative to your assertion in one post, that our (pro-life) objections will have the impact of snowballs in Hawaii, you are partly correct. Legislatively, the day is long off when IVF is outlawed-if ever. As for not having the fortitude to even get in the ring for the prizefight, you make the mistake of underestimating your opponent. Over two millennia, the Roman Catholic Church has not only survived, but grown, as entire civilizations have collapsed under the weight of their own moral depravity. Such will be the case when the rotting carcass of western civilization has fertilized the ground for future generation’s growth. We endure and grow precisely because we understand the universal human nature and human dignity so very well and ardently promote both, the shortcomings of our individual members notwithstanding.
“But my guess is that the other side does not want to make an issue of something that will end up with them looking like a tortilla that has been stepped on by an elephant,” has to be your best. Actually, we are in this one for the duration. What has been squashed like a tortilla stepped on by an elephant in the thirty years of IVF has been the dignity of the unborn, of marriage, of the conjugal nature of procreation, of parenthood, and medicine. That’s a ton of tortillas.
To answer Steven Waldman’s Original question “Does in vitro fertilization = abortion?” The answer is no.
It’s worse. Far worse.
Mike and others have spoken of the desperation of the childless couple. With the deepest respect for their sufferings, the end (having a baby that is biologically theirs) cannot justify the means. Perhaps many are blinded by their desperation and pain. That does not lessen damage wrought by the IVF community. Nor does such desperation justify the assault on human dignity in the name of having one’s own biological child. This, especially when so many children languish in foster care, waiting for adoptive parents.
In abortion, the mother seeks to end the nascent life within her. In IVF the couple, while attempting to generate life, consents to sorting through several new humans in search of the best. As the post above shows, almost half of the embryonic humans are discarded (we say “life ended”), others are donated to be dismembered for research, still others immersed in liquid nitrogen and frozen for an indeterminate period of time.
Clearly, with IVF, we have departed from the parental norm.
This technology denies the humanity of the new lives. It is predatory. It denies the human dignity of the embryos, and treats these offspring as property, to be disposed of in a manner and at a time according to the parent’s whim.
Many may ask how we have arrived here. It’s simple. All we have to do is convince ourselves that humanity pops in out of nowhere at some imaginary point in the biological development of the offspring and infuses the body AFTER our planned manipulation (abortion, freezing, discarding, donating for research). With such a properly anesthetized conscience, anything goes.
posted January 9, 2009 at 3:44 pm
Mr. Waldman: I do consider this a holocaust as well.
posted August 26, 2010 at 10:42 pm
I’m only 16 years old, from the state of Alabama. I usually don’t have much to say, but I’m adamant about this. Pro-life. These are possible human lives we’re debating about here. Possible future presidents, doctors, even Mozart’s and Einsteins. I agree that it seems predatory and quite vain to try and “play God” with the lives of these tiny people, which is what they are. People. It does matter if you’re liberal, conservative, or a parakeet. It matters if you have any humanity left in you at all….