Southern Baptist Convention approves resolution opposing IVF

The Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination in the U.S., on Wednesday voted to approve a resolution opposing the use of in vitro fertilization (IVF) and called on Christian couples to “consider the ethical implications of assisted reproductive technologies as they look to God for hope, grace, and wisdom amid suffering.”

The resolution, which is a statement of belief and is nonbinding, comes following a landmark ruling by the Alabama Supreme Court in February that found that frozen human embryos are children under state law. The ruling sparked a national debate, and Alabama lawmakers have since passed a bill that grants immunity to IVF providers in cases of death or injury to unborn babies during the IVF process.

IVF is a medical procedure that fuses sperm and egg in a lab environment to conceive a child outside of the sexual act. The live embryo is then later implanted into a uterus to continue developing until birth.

The Catholic Church opposes the use of IVF on the grounds that it separates the marriage act from procreation and establishes “the domination of technology” over human life. The use of IVF, which necessarily includes a selection process of the “best” embryos, has led to millions of rejected human embryos being discarded and millions more frozen and stored in a state of limbo.

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