Chelsea, why are you always harping on IVF?? Because, after 35 years, IVF is still a vast experiment. An experiment on children, millions of whom pay for it with their lives. Even those who are lucky enough to have survived the process are paying for it in other ways: By having a greater risk of developing birth defects or spending … Read More
Sperm Donor Recalls Meeting His Donor-Daughter Decades Later
All Narelle Grech from Australia knew of her father was that his code name was T5, he was brown-haired and brown-eyed with O-positive blood type. “When I was a teenager, I carried that information around with me on a scrap of paper, the way other kids carried a photograph of their dad,” she said. “It was my way of keeping … Read More
Audio: On Our Culture’s Love/Hate Relationship With Babies
Does our culture have a love/hate relationship with babies? Is Captain James T. Kirk captive to the culture of death? And what does Pope Francis mean by an “ecumenism of blood?” I had a good time talking about all of the above on the Mike Allen Show yesterday with the ever-awesome Jason Hall, who is the associate director of the … Read More
The IVF Industry Degrades Women
Jennifer Lahl writes: I’m just back from Charleston, South Carolina, where I attended the American Academy of Assisted Reproductive Technology Attorneys (AAARTA) professional conference. I listened in for three days on presentations addressing all things associated with third party reproduction from the perspective of lawyers, lobbyists, and advocates for LGBT rights and expanding global laws. I learned a lot. Much … Read More
Enlightening Interview With Egg Donor Recruiter
After seeing their Eggsploitation documentary, a former egg donor recruiter came forward and agreed to talk to the Center for Bioethics and Culture about her experience working for 18 years with a leading fertility center in the United States. It’s an interesting look into the industry. An excerpt: The last few years was all about pleasing the recipients who were … Read More
The Overlooked Ethics of Reproduction
Absolute must-read from Jennifer Lahl at Christianity Today: The fact that so many people fail to consider the moral implications of IVF suggests that in the age of fertility treatments, surrogates, and modern family-building via parenting partnerships, a woman’s womb has come to be seen as a somewhat arbitrary location. NBC’s The New Normal quips that women are “Easy-Bake Ovens” … Read More
IVF Still a Young Science
In case you missed it the first time, this post was republished at American Life League yesterday: After the death of Robert Edwards, one of the British doctors who perfected in vitro fertilization (IVF), earlier this year, Miriam Zoll took a look at the legacy of third party reproduction, specifically the often overlooked numbers of failed treatments associated with these … Read More
UK to Possibly Be First to Offer “Three-Parent” IVF
After roughly a year of polling the British public about it (because naturally that’s the best way to determine all serious ethical questions involving complicated human biotechnology), last week the UK’s Chief Medical Officer, Dame Sally Davies, announced that the British government’s health department is drafting regulations in order to start offering “three-parent” IVF treatments in order to combat mitochondrial … Read More
A Promise Wrongly Made
In an article about a recommended change in Australian law that would give children greater rights to know about their sperm donor, IVF professor Gab Kovacs said, retrospectively changing the law would be “un-Australian and unfair”. In a letter to the editor, “Ian Smith” responded: Professor Gab Kovacs says he is “worried about men who donated over 25 years ago, … Read More
Weekend Life Links
A few quick takes for your weekend: 1. The Church Is Not Backward, But Forward — my good friend Rebecca on the far-reaching wisdom of the Church. This article will also give you an idea of what’s coming up in our next episode of BioTalk! I’ll be editing that this weekend. 2. The Church and Science: The Right Place at … Read More