Rachel, your paragraph starting with infertility can crush the spirit described my experience with IVF so well. I could not have written it better and I lived it for two years. I am Catholic and felt so isolated and strayed away from attending Mass during that time. I questioned why God would let us suffer with multiple miscarriages and “unexplained”infertility. We had our first son with IVF 16 years ago. We then went through several frozen embryo transfer attempts until there were none left. None of them resulted in a second pregnancy. We were blessed with a second son two and half years later the way God intended. I struggle with the fact we used IVF although the industry was very different 16 years ago. There was no genetic testing of embryos then. Thank you for your writing. I agree with the premise that the child’s life is more important than the want/ desire of adults to be parents at all costs. It needs to be talked about more. Couples should pause and pray more instead of going straight into IVF. Thank you again for writing about such a difficult but important topic.
Excellent post—while the biblical argument against IVF should be enough, I truly appreciate the scientific sources you shared. It’s high time the church tackles these hard, but necessary topics.
So well-written. Thank you, Rachel! This conversation needs to be had. And yes, every child is worthy of life no matter how that life was created. It breaks my heart when others assume that my opposition to IVF translates to devaluation of a child’s life — that’s like someone telling me that since I say premarital sex is wrong, children conceived in such a case aren’t valuable — and that is so far from the truth that every person is loved and has inherent value because they bear the image of Christ no matter how they came to be!
Lately, I’ve been studying women of the Old Testament. For three weeks in a row, we studied women who suffered from infertility (Sarah & Rachel in Genesis, Hannah in 1 Samuel). Sarah & Rachel both felt they had a “right” to a child and chose to take matters into their own hands. Rachel even tried to use mandrakes from her nephew’s garden to boost her fertility. All of their children were certainly blessings, but these women experienced suffering because of the actions they chose. I didn’t realize the parallel until I saw the comments flooding on your post a few days ago, but I think these testimonies are important to study and be aware of!
Excellent additional resources! Thank you Rachel. Thanks to other voices like yours, even my children are awake to what IVF is. World Watch had a beautiful segment last year about a woman who adopted one of those abandoned embryos and we paused and had a discussion right then. We also know a family with beautiful twins adopted the same way. They look completely different from the father and the woman who carried them in her womb and so are a very visible example for my children of what embryo adoption may look like. Even in the midst of the dark industry of commodifying life, there is light and hope for some of those forgotten babies.
Another sad part of IVF is embryo adoption - it’s not even technically adoption. Embryos are considered property. Like a couch you sell on Marketplace. Transactional. Dehumanizing, almost human trafficking. Im not saying it’s bad to adopt an embryo, I support it with so many lives suspended in a freezer BUT it’s how these embryos are viewed that I hate so much. Disposable. More care is put in saving turtle eggs than human embryos. Our culture has literally taken everything and made it a product. 1-800-BuyABaby
I’m afraid to see how society’s views on human life develop in the future.
Despite all that, I am grateful that people have the opportunity to adopt embryos because none of this is going away anytime soon and Christians have the ability to send a message of our belief in life by supporting embryo adoption and staying clear of IVF.
Rachel, thank you for writing this clear summary. The only thing I would change is to note you implied only females make emotional decisions. We all are prone to making decisions based on emotivism instead of well informed reason. You have done much to inform us. My old Christian ethics professor, Paul Ramsey, was perhaps more horrified by the prospect of IVF than anything else in his field. And of course, Aldous Huxley paints it as a horrifying practice in his Brave New World dystopia.
Great post! I just want to add that there are options outside of IVF! Visit https://naprotechnology.com/ to get real help with fertility issues. Not sponsored; just grateful.
Very well-written piece, and you make a lot of important points for couples to consider. I appreciate your honesty and willingness to share about such a controversial subject. However it seems to me that you have maybe mis-stated your real argument. In terms of the “right” and “wrong” of IVF, your post seems to point out that it is the abandonment/destruction of embryos that is wrong. While all the sad statistics you share may very well be true, I believe it also true that a couple who is determined not to abandon or destroy any embryos can weigh the pros and cons of IVF and choose to move forward with a doctor they trust to follow their wishes to use every one of their embryos. Is that an easy thing to do? Of course not. But to say that IVF is wrong and even a sin in the sight of God is unfair. Incredibly hard to use IVF and follow God’s word at the same time? Yes. But is every single couple who participates in IVF sinning against God? I don’t believe that.
Rachel, your paragraph starting with infertility can crush the spirit described my experience with IVF so well. I could not have written it better and I lived it for two years. I am Catholic and felt so isolated and strayed away from attending Mass during that time. I questioned why God would let us suffer with multiple miscarriages and “unexplained”infertility. We had our first son with IVF 16 years ago. We then went through several frozen embryo transfer attempts until there were none left. None of them resulted in a second pregnancy. We were blessed with a second son two and half years later the way God intended. I struggle with the fact we used IVF although the industry was very different 16 years ago. There was no genetic testing of embryos then. Thank you for your writing. I agree with the premise that the child’s life is more important than the want/ desire of adults to be parents at all costs. It needs to be talked about more. Couples should pause and pray more instead of going straight into IVF. Thank you again for writing about such a difficult but important topic.
Excellent post—while the biblical argument against IVF should be enough, I truly appreciate the scientific sources you shared. It’s high time the church tackles these hard, but necessary topics.
So well-written. Thank you, Rachel! This conversation needs to be had. And yes, every child is worthy of life no matter how that life was created. It breaks my heart when others assume that my opposition to IVF translates to devaluation of a child’s life — that’s like someone telling me that since I say premarital sex is wrong, children conceived in such a case aren’t valuable — and that is so far from the truth that every person is loved and has inherent value because they bear the image of Christ no matter how they came to be!
Lately, I’ve been studying women of the Old Testament. For three weeks in a row, we studied women who suffered from infertility (Sarah & Rachel in Genesis, Hannah in 1 Samuel). Sarah & Rachel both felt they had a “right” to a child and chose to take matters into their own hands. Rachel even tried to use mandrakes from her nephew’s garden to boost her fertility. All of their children were certainly blessings, but these women experienced suffering because of the actions they chose. I didn’t realize the parallel until I saw the comments flooding on your post a few days ago, but I think these testimonies are important to study and be aware of!
Excellent additional resources! Thank you Rachel. Thanks to other voices like yours, even my children are awake to what IVF is. World Watch had a beautiful segment last year about a woman who adopted one of those abandoned embryos and we paused and had a discussion right then. We also know a family with beautiful twins adopted the same way. They look completely different from the father and the woman who carried them in her womb and so are a very visible example for my children of what embryo adoption may look like. Even in the midst of the dark industry of commodifying life, there is light and hope for some of those forgotten babies.
Another sad part of IVF is embryo adoption - it’s not even technically adoption. Embryos are considered property. Like a couch you sell on Marketplace. Transactional. Dehumanizing, almost human trafficking. Im not saying it’s bad to adopt an embryo, I support it with so many lives suspended in a freezer BUT it’s how these embryos are viewed that I hate so much. Disposable. More care is put in saving turtle eggs than human embryos. Our culture has literally taken everything and made it a product. 1-800-BuyABaby
I’m afraid to see how society’s views on human life develop in the future.
Despite all that, I am grateful that people have the opportunity to adopt embryos because none of this is going away anytime soon and Christians have the ability to send a message of our belief in life by supporting embryo adoption and staying clear of IVF.
Rachel, thank you for writing this clear summary. The only thing I would change is to note you implied only females make emotional decisions. We all are prone to making decisions based on emotivism instead of well informed reason. You have done much to inform us. My old Christian ethics professor, Paul Ramsey, was perhaps more horrified by the prospect of IVF than anything else in his field. And of course, Aldous Huxley paints it as a horrifying practice in his Brave New World dystopia.
Great post! I just want to add that there are options outside of IVF! Visit https://naprotechnology.com/ to get real help with fertility issues. Not sponsored; just grateful.
Very well-written piece, and you make a lot of important points for couples to consider. I appreciate your honesty and willingness to share about such a controversial subject. However it seems to me that you have maybe mis-stated your real argument. In terms of the “right” and “wrong” of IVF, your post seems to point out that it is the abandonment/destruction of embryos that is wrong. While all the sad statistics you share may very well be true, I believe it also true that a couple who is determined not to abandon or destroy any embryos can weigh the pros and cons of IVF and choose to move forward with a doctor they trust to follow their wishes to use every one of their embryos. Is that an easy thing to do? Of course not. But to say that IVF is wrong and even a sin in the sight of God is unfair. Incredibly hard to use IVF and follow God’s word at the same time? Yes. But is every single couple who participates in IVF sinning against God? I don’t believe that.