Ethical Question Regarding IVF

[snowpumpkin]

I'm not the biggest fan of IVF. I obviously cannot speak on behalf of Christian morality when it comes to IVF, but in my personal opinion, I think it's a huge waste of money. I don't see anything wrong with the procedure itself, but I will probably never understand why and the motives for doing it. There are thousands and thousands of unwanted kids in the world that need to be adopted...And couples are willing to pay 5 digit numbers and go through invasive procedures and emotional turmoil just to have a kid that is "their own"? It just seems so self centered and emotionally based.

My IVF twins are the best money I ever spent. In fact, they are priceless. The money we had to pay for the procedure pales in comparison to the value I place on my children. Please don't tell anyone else that their babies are a waste of money.

I'm not going to say it's sinful, but I can't say that choosing IVF over adoption is right. If a couple can't have kids together and they want kids, then it just might be God telling them that they should adopt. There are after all, plenty of kids who need it.

If God gives you cancer, is that His way of telling you to suck it, it's time to die?

Be careful about labelling something as a Christian belief when Scripture is silent on the issue.

It could just as easily be argued that God placed that couple in a time and place and provided them with the money so they *could* go the IVF route.

I love you. If we weren't meant to have our children, our IVF wouldn't have worked no matter how many times we tried. We prayed and talked to our priest who said medical intervention was fine as long as we used our own sperm and eggs, which we did. We saved and saved to afford it, and God gave us two miracles on the first try. Not just one, but two!

Can't speak for the UK, but in the US there actually aren't many children available for adoption. Very few children in the foster care system are actually adoptable, as their parents still have intact rights and are trying to get their children back through the court system. I would imagine the situation in most western countries is pretty much the same.

Very, very true. Adoption is outrageously expensive and can take years and years. People speak of it so nonchalantly like it's as easy as going to store and picking out a kid.

It is all part of the problem in our way of thinking - the way we exploit sexuality and human persons.

We abort babies and then produce people in test tubes outside an act of love because there are not babies to be had. It dehumanizes society and corrupts our understanding of sexuality. The problem with our society is that we put freedom above all things and we demand getting things our way with instant gratification.

To put sperm and eggs together, freeze them, implant them, give them away to other people or destroying them is treating them as commodities. These are real people, with a unique identity.

Sex is a gift from God. The gift should be freely received and given to others with respect for its purpose and the gifts that go along with it. The sad part about society is that we don't even see it as a gift, it is has been reduced to a need, a biological urge to be satisfied and something to play with to produce children.

Couples should emulate the Trinity. From Adam came Eve, who looked upon her and saw himself and loved his own flesh. From the Father came the Son, who looked upon Him and Himself, the Word, and loved the person who shared His essence. The love of the Father and Son was so great that they wanted to make it more complete by revealing it fully to another person and from their shared substance, came the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit could love the other two and also share and enjoy the love between the Father and Son. Thus, love was perfected in the Trinity.

Men and women can look onto each other and share their bodies to produce another person out of that love. Like the Holy Spirit, the child comes from them out of love. IVF is sinful in this since that like all sin, it looks to do something good but it produces good in error or produces evil in trying to do good.

God wants us to share and come close to that perfect love that exists in the Trinity.

We took SEX out of the act, not the LOVE. Do not confuse yourself. People have sex all the time without love. We just had love without the sex this time. God works in two ways, He makes things happen and He allows things to happen. We had twins on the first try. So God made our IVF work or he allowed it to work. Either way, God gave us these babies.

 

[snowpumpkin]

Interesting thoughts, but it sounds like the author is ignoring the science behind conception and making sex as a means of conception overly sentimental. Whether conceived in the womb or in a petre dish, the same process is involved. Egg and sperm meet, blastocyst develops, it is implanted in the uterus and grows into a child.

I don't think removing sex from conception is going to change how parents' view or love their child. Actually, I'd say that view could almost be considered insulting. What if a woman is raped? That child is not conceived in a loving, marital "embrace". It doesn't mean that child cannot be loved and valued by the mother/parents. And nobody wants a disabled child, we all want healthy babies, but we love them no matter how they come out.

Anyway, I don't mean to imply that sex isn't sentimental and special. It is. But I don't think a child conceived in a different way is somehow magically viewed differently because it wasn't conceived during a loving, sexual encounter between two people who love each other.

Sorry, I didn't read through all of your post the first time. I completely agree with you!

 

[IamStefanie]

I don't know if it's a sin, but to me, it's not beneficial or wise to do.

 

[anewday]

I just saw this and wonder how legit the study was ...

Birth defects a third more common in IVF babies - Health - Children's health - msnbc.com

 

[Edwards1984]

Is it a sin for a Christian man to donate his sperm to a woman who is not his wife, in a non sexual manner, so that she can get pregnant?

Why? Why not?

Don't most sperm donation places provide inappropriate contentography for a man to pleasure himself to in order to provide the sperm? I've never donated sperm, so maybe others can clue me in. If this is the case, then the donating in essence asks a man to partake in lust, which would be wrong (Matt 5:27-28).

 

[SOLDIER ❤]

I don't think it's a good thing. God created us to find a mate and bare children with them not just donate your sperm, but to a stranger? It wouldn't be fair neither to that child either.