On Tuesday Governor Jerry Brown of California surprisingly vetoed a bill that would have permitted biotech companies to buy eggs from women for scientific research. The Center for Bioethics and Culture released the following statement: We applaud California Governor Jerry Brown for his leadership in vetoing AB 926 yesterday. This bill would have allowed women in California to be paid … Read More
After 35 Years, IVF Still a Vast Experiment
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 over-looked numbers of failed treatments associated with these invasive technologies. In 2012, according to the European Society of Embryology and Reproduction, 1.5 million ART cycles were … 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
Abortion is Not the Only Pro-Life Battle Before Us
Students for Life of America president Kristan Hawkins writes at HLI’s Truth and Charity Forum: I’m not saying to abandon the use of the term “pro-life” altogether, but we must realize that the term “pro-life” allows the person using it to give it their own definition. For me and others I work with, it means that we are dedicated to … Read More
“Reproductive Rights” Run Amuck
Dear readers, I’m pleased to share my first article for Human Life International‘s Truth and Charity Forum: “Reproductive Rights” Run Amuck. Yes, I’m writing about (what else?) IVF again. I can’t help it. As millions of human beings pay the ultimate price at the hands of an increasingly out of control, unregulated fertility industry, it pains me that this isn’t … Read More
Reproductive Technologies and Huxley’s Brave New World
Jennifer Lahl is one of my favorite people in the world. With the Center for Bioethics and Culture, she is doing incredible, important work exposing the dark reality behind the fuzzy, fell-good picture that the media and popular entertainment typically paint of third party reproduction. This summer she was interviewed by a film crew from Germany for a documentary on … Read More
The Catholic Church Embraces Science and Those Struggling with Infertility
In case you missed it the first time around, I’ve re-published my article The Catholic Church is No Enemy of Science or the Infertile over at Ignitum Today: Because of her opposition to third party reproduction, the Catholic Church is often accused of being anti-science and insensitive to those who suffer the pain of infertility. Last year’s CNN Belief Blog … Read More
A Missing Voice in Hollywood’s Assisted Reproductive Technology Advocacy
Last month NBC premiered a new sitcom about a young, single mother who agrees to become a gay couple’s surrogate mother. The pilot episode opens with a sweet video in which one of the main characters, Bryan, talks to his future child, explaining how badly he/she is wanted. It’s an appealing sentiment, and yet, that’s precisely the problem with assisted … Read More
There Isn’t One ‘Right’ Answer Here
Dammit, Mitt. You don’t make it easy for me to want to vote for you as opposed to just voting against Obama. I knew that Mitt Romney’s son Tagg had used IVF and a surrogate mother twice to give birth to three of his six children. I didn’t hold his son’s actions against Mitt himself, though. That was, of course, … Read More