In Vitro Fertilization - Creating Designer Babies

I wish I were kidding, but I'm not. IVF has now gone far beyond simply a means, albeit an immoral one as Catholic Teaching rightly points out, to have a baby for couples dealing with fertility problems. It has now become the way to design the baby you want.
Over at Creative Minority Report Tuesday they put up a guest post by Rebecca Taylor. She is a Technologist in Molecular Biology, MB(ASCP) & a practicing Catholic. She has been writing & speaking about Catholicism & biotechnology for five years at her blog Mary Meets Dolly. So she knows what she is talking about. She talks about 2 incidents that show just how far down the wrong road IVF has taken us. It is no longer about loving & having children, it is about selfishly ensuring you get what you want. There is no love involved, unless you count self love.
She shows us by these examples, exactly why the Catholic Church's teaching in this area is the right one. What you are about to read is is "chilling". What they are doing is pure selfishness. In my mind all the children, born & unborn are victims of child abuse because of these people's actions. I was horrified by what I read. I am both saddenned & shocked that things have gone this far. I have to admit I am not surprized however. Given the way our culture has been heading, this makes perfect sense to be a next step for it to take. & that is why I am so saddenned.

Here is the start of the article. Follow the link for the rest of the story.


IVF is Not Just For Infertility but Human Manufacturing to Specs

A few years ago I went shopping for a brand new house. Every model home I visited, regardless of the builder, had a gigantic master suite with a spa-like enormous bathroom where every morning you could cartwheel your way to the shower and back flip to the toilet. Down the hall, placed almost like an afterthought, were 3 or 4 tiny little bedrooms whose total square feet might add up to the space provided in the palatial master suite.

After the 5th house or so, I realized this was an indicator that society's values had shifted. Builders were building what the buyer wanted, which was clearly parental desire and comfort at the child's expense. I also knew it wasn't a good
sign. These days it is all about what parents want, not about what is best for the children. There is nowhere where this attitude is more apparent than in the assisted reproduction industry. We all heard of the Octomom, but it goes so much deeper than that.

In vitro fertilization, better known as IVF, is not just about infertility anymore, it is about human manufacturing to specifications. In the past year, two stories have been in the news that illustrate my point. Gillian and Paul St. Lawrence, both fertile and in their 30's, have used IVF to create 5 embryos. They have frozen their 5 offspring until it is more convenient for them to raise children. From the Washington Post:

"Our five frozen embryos, which we call our baby blastocysts, will remain in storage until we are ready to use them. Since study after study has indicated that the age of the uterus at the time the embryo is implanted is almost irrelevant to the success rate of achieving a healthy baby, we can wait 10 or 15 years: The chief consideration may well be how old I want to be when I'm raising a teenager.

Upon hearing this, my mother-in-law was quick to ask: "You don't have to wait until you are 40 to use the embryos, right?" No, we do not. We can choose to use them any time. And, of course, my husband and I are still free to have babies the old-fashioned way. We still have all the options we had prior to this project -- but now we have some insurance against future infertility.

Five human lives have been created and put in "storage" until they are ready to "use" as the St. Lawrence's "project" to provide themselves "insurance." (Her words not mine.) There was a time we used "gift" and "blessing" when referring to children but in this Brave New World, "project" and "insurance" are more appropriate. IVF is now being used for human manufacturing to specifications. In this case, ordered with delayed delivery.