Word of the day: Twibling, n. one of two genetically related offspring carried simultaneously by two different women. In this very long article in the NYTimes, Melanie Thernstrom writes about how she, after undergoing FIVE unsuccessful rounds of IVF finally got the children she wanted when she found two different strangers to – at the same time – carry to … Read More
Embryos to Get Microscopic “Bar Codes”
As if we needed more evidence that IVF makes human life a commodity. From New Science: Researchers at the Autonomous University of Barcelona have come up with an ingenious solution for keeping track of embryos and egg cells during in vitro fertilisation procedures: microscopic bar codes. These mouse eggs were tagged by injecting microscopic silicon bar codes into their perivitelline … Read More
IVF: “The Younger Sister of Eugenics”
Some bishops in Poland aren’t afraid to tell it like it is: (Reuters) – Bishops of Poland’s influential Roman Catholic Church have branded in vitro fertilization (IVF) “the younger sister of eugenics” in a letter aimed at swaying lawmakers ahead of a parliamentary debate. But their intervention, two weeks after the church condemned the awarding of the 2010 Nobel Prize … Read More
Pro-Life Fertility Care
TheCatholicSpirit.com has a good article on two men of science and their very different approach to fertility. Dr. Josef Roetzer, the Austrian doctor whose work led to the development of the sympto-thermal method of natural family planning, died this year on October4. That same day British biologist Robert G. Edwards was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine for developing the … Read More
TOB Tuesday: Technology and Human Conception
After coming across another IVF horror story today, I thought this article from Christopher West would be fitting for today. Certainly we can see that there are some serious problems with IVF with regard to the hundreds of thousands of “left-over” embryos that are either destroyed, frozen for later “use,” or intentionally farmed for medical experimentation. But even if we … Read More
Pope Confronts the “Difficult Problem of Bioethics”
Pope Benedict has been very vocal lately on the subject of bioethics. Earlier this week he warned to the “seductive” powers of science: “In an age when scientific developments attract and seduce with the possibilities they offer, it’s more important than ever to educate our contemporaries’ consciences so that science does not become the criteria for goodness.” And recently he … Read More
More Great Stem Cell News
I’m running a little behind on this news. It turns out the latest and greatest stem cell research discovery – turning ordinary skin cells into embryonic like cells – has been used to successfully treat mice with sickle cell anemia. ALSO, bone marrow is being used in spinal cord therapy. Do we need more proof…I mean really…that it is not … Read More
Exploiting Women and Families for Cloning/ESCR
A little late getting this one in, but this is despicable. In the UK women will be offered discounted IVF treatments if they will donate extra eggs for cloning research. I’m not sure what’s worse, that, or the morally bankrupt StemLifeLine which encourages parents to destroy their own offspring by allowing the company to “develop” and “transform” their unwanted IVF … Read More
Woman Gives Birth to Her Own Grandchildren
It doesn’t get much creepier than this. In Florida a young woman was diagnosed with cancer two years ago and underwent a hysterectomy. Doctors harvested some of her eggs which were fertilized by her husbands sperm and later implanted into the womb of her 59 year old mother, who recently gave birth to the twins. I am sorry but that … Read More
Another IVF Ethical Dilemma
What if your only hope of giving birth meant possibly having to kill one or more of your children in the process? Would you go through with it? Many couples do. You see, not only does IVF create excess embryos in petri dishes, but there is also the possibility of creating excess fetuses in the womb. When this happens, some … Read More