Why is IVF Not a Viable Option for Christians?

           It is a good and natural thing that husbands and wives desire children.  This is one of the reasons why God instituted marriage. The desire for children is bound up in His ongoing creative Word “Be fruitful and multiply.”

           However, since we live under the curse of sin, our fallen bodies are not always fruitful as they were created to be.  What are married couples to do when the gift of children is not being given?  Christians call upon God in prayer, and one of the answers to prayer can be medicines and therapies which work to bring healing to the body’s functioning – promoting ovulation or increasing sperm counts and motility, etc.  Since these sorts of treatments and procedures work within the boundaries of the natural, one-flesh union God created to conceive life, there are very few potential ethical concerns with them. 

But what is to be done when that doesn’t work?  It is at this point that many couples consider in vitro fertilization (IVF).  Because of the way IVF is done, it raises several significant ethical issues.  Here’s how IVF works (from “In Vitro Fertilization—Ark or Tower?” by James Lamb):

Fertilization in Glass
The basic procedure of IVF begins when the woman is treated to produce many viable eggs per cycle. The eggs are retrieved through a hollow needle inserted through the abdominal wall. They are placed in a petri dish and mixed with sperm. Fertilization occurs and development begins “in glass,” Latin, “in vitro.”

Embryo Grading
A laboratory technician then assigns a grade to each embryo based on his visual microscopic assessment of how “good” each embryo appears. This is completely subjective—and is admitted as such on fertility clinic websites. Generally, embryos with “poor grades” are discarded. Many couples are unaware that this happens.

Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis
At this point, pre-implantation genetic diagnosis may take place. A nucleus from one of the embryonic cells can be removed and analyzed. If a genetic disease exists, the embryo may be destroyed. Since gender is determined at the moment of conception, this technique can be used to select boy or girl embryos, and the clinic will only implant the babies of the gender the client chooses.

Insertion
The “good” embryos are placed into the uterus. The procedure generally calls for three or four embryos to be inserted because not all may implant in the uterine wall. The success rate is about 40 percent. When multiple embryos do begin to develop, doctors often recommend “selective reduction” so only one or two remain. Selective reduction = abortion.

Embryo Freezing
Embryos not inserted may be frozen in liquid nitrogen. Although freezing techniques have improved, embryos may be harmed in this process, and harm may occur when they are thawed. Couples with frozen embryos generally have four options:

1.       Have more inserted at a later date

2.       Donate them for research

3.       Seek to have them adopted by another couple

4.       Allow them to die

Based on the above information, there are several of God’s commandments that come into play which Christians will want to give serious consideration to.  First, and most clearly, is the 5^th Commandment.  In the meaning to this commandment against murder, the Small Catechism states, “We should fear and love God so that we do not hurt or harm our neighbor in his body. . .”  However, IVF clearly and almost inevitably involves harming or destroying embryos.  This is virtually unavoidable in the IVF process.  Multiple embryos are created with the goal of merely one, or perhaps two, actually implanting and being brought to term.  Every one of these embryos is a child, a human being with a soul, a boy or girl with their own unique DNA.  And yet it is routine and accepted that many of these young lives will simply need to be sacrificed in order to achieve the goal of pregnancy.  If the unused embryos are discarded and left for dead, or donated for research where they will be experimented upon and eventually destroyed, the 5^th Commandment is directly being violated.  And even if the embryos are frozen, there is great potential for harm to come to these young human lives in the process.  And the entire method of freezing embryos raises the more basic question, “Where and when were we given the right to create and manipulate human life like that?”  The entire notion is contrary to God’s order for bringing new life into the world.  And we haven’t even begun to address the reality of a 60% failure rate for implantation of these embryos.  This means that from the outset, parents and doctors are willing to accept a 60% death rate of the children they create outside the womb in hopes that one will come to term within the womb.  In the name of creating human life, IVF destroys human life.

            There are also other deeper issues at work.  For instance, IVF takes the creation of life outside of the one flesh union God instituted and brings 3^rd parties into the actual reproductive process itself.  This brings issues of the 6^th Commandment into play.  In some cases, donor eggs or sperm are used, which even more radically brings a 3^rd party into the marriage, contrary to God’s will. 

            And at the root of all of this are matters of the 1^st Commandment, where we are called to fear, love, and trust in God above all things.  IVF goes beyond using God’s good gift of science and medicine for healing and helping, and it transgresses into the realm of taking over the role of God.  It is no minor thing to change the way life is created and to intentionally step outside of God’s natural order.  This is virtually the very definition of playing God.  Medical technology becomes a false god when we look to it for help in a way that stands in contradiction to the Holy Trinity and His Word.  Our desires and dreams become idols if we set our hearts on them more than the Lord.  The entire notion that children are commodities that we are in charge of bringing into existence, rather than gifts which God gives according to His good pleasure, is deeply problematic.

The Lord gives hope and comfort

            Dealing with infertility and barrenness certainly involves serious spiritual struggle.  Scripture gives many helpful examples of women who experienced these issues and endured this struggle.  There is comfort to be had in hearing about their lives as they trusted in the Lord and called on His name.  Whether or not the gift of children is ever granted, God’s Word is full of comfort and hope and promises such as this: “The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart and saves those who are crushed in spirit” (Psalm 34:18).  He has promised to work all things together for the good of His people, those whom He has called to be His own in Holy Baptism (Romans 8:28).  Very often it is precisely when we are weak and empty and powerless of ourselves that He draws us most closely to Himself and fills us with His blessing and teaches us to trust in Him ever more confidently.  St. Paul, commenting on a different sort of struggle, said in 2 Corinthians 12, “Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this. . . but he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. . . For when I am weak, then I am strong.”  In suffering we cling most fervently to Him who suffered for us, even to the point of death on the cross to take away our sins and to restore us to everlasting life.  

Our Lord Jesus shared fully in our humanity.  The Son of God was willing to become a holy embryo Himself in the womb of the blessed Virgin Mary.  He sanctified the wombs of all women, those who bear children, and those who don’t.  He made our entire lives holy, from conception to the grave, and redeemed us as His own by His precious blood.  Through faith in Him who is now risen from the dead, new and eternal life is conceived in us, and we begin to bear the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23).  Having this life in the risen Jesus is what we set our hearts on above all; it is what gives us purpose as we love and serve our neighbor.  That purpose may involve fostering or adoption or any number of other paths of service that God might set before us.  But in all things, we seek to live according to His will, trusting in Him, giving thanks to the Lord in the confidence that “He is good, and His mercy endures forever” (Psalm 136:1).  

-Pastor Koch

P.S.—An excellent resource on the general topic of infertility and barrenness can be found here, “He Remembers the Barren” by Katie Schuermann.  And on the general topic of life issues, be sure to visit LutheransForLife.org.