in vitro fertilization Archives

August 27, 2025September 1, 2025

Reproductive Technologies: Proceed with Caution

As medical science becomes more advanced, it offers women new reproductive technologies. Older women can now have children even after menopause. Using a sperm donor, a single woman can become a mother. A woman with no eggs in her uterus can have an embryo transfer along with progesterone injections.

In vitro fertilization, which was introduced in England in 1978, has resulted in the birth of over 12 million children worldwide. The first successful egg-donor birth was also reported around that time. Efforts are underway to improve a process called in vitro gametogenesis, which involves creating gametes from stem cells and deriving an egg from another type of cell. This technique could enable same-sex couples to have children with genes from both partners. Another possibility is to develop a synthetic womb where a baby could be grown outside a woman.

The number of women choosing to have children through technological methods is increasing rapidly. What started as a way to help women who couldn’t conceive has now become an option for women of any age or situation in life to have a child. If a woman has the resources and the desire, she can pursue parenthood. One of my feminist friends has even said that males might eventually be eliminated from the planet.

There are many unknowns in this debate that make it difficult for Christians to determine where to begin. The human genome is incredibly complex, and we cannot fully understand what is in the past of a sperm or egg donor. Who is responsible if it turns out the baby has a genetic disease or a physical or mental handicap? What psychological issues arise if a child has no father figure, or if the single mother becomes sick, passes away, or changes her mind about having the child? Will older women be able to raise children to adulthood?

Humans are essentially playing “God” with something we are not equipped to control. As an adoptive parent of three children and someone who has witnessed the collateral damage of abortion, I believe we must proceed with caution in developing reproductive technologies.

Reference: January 2024 issue of National Geographic (pages 68 -93)

December 23, 2024December 22, 2024

IVF and “Snowflake Babies”

When humans decide to “play God,” all kinds of problems develop. A modern example is “In Vitro Fertilization,” or IVF. In this reproductive strategy, a woman’s eggs are put into a petri dish, and sperm is added to the dish, where all of the eggs are allowed to divide and grow. After five or six days, each fertilized egg has grown to a blastocyst of 100 to 200 cells. The blastocyst is transferred into a uterus, where it may or may not develop into a pregnancy.

The IVF process produces a group of dozens of embryos and raises a series of issues. What do you do with these viable embryos? They can be flushed down a toilet or donated to medical research. They can also be stored in canisters of liquid nitrogen at minus 321 degrees Fahrenheit for future use years or decades later, at up to $1000 per year.

An adoption agency called “Nightlight Christian Adoptions” has one solution. They take these frozen embryos, called “snowflake babies,” and make them available to women who want to have a baby. That includes single mothers as well as couples who cannot conceive. Part of the motivation for this process is the belief that human life begins at conception. In 2022, a “snowflake baby” showed the Supreme Court in the Dobbs case that life begins at fertilization, leading the court to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Your author can understand the frustration that goes with wanting to have a child and being unable to conceive. My wife desperately wanted to be a mother. The political landscape of when to call an embryo human is also a factor, and religious groups have entered this discussion, with both the Catholic Church and the Southern Baptist Convention opposing IVF.

What happens when a baby produced by IVF is born with a genetic disability? Who is responsible, and what happens to such a child? When a single woman becomes a mother, will the child have the needed support? Society has revised the biblical concept of a family to include any combination of adults or a single person.

God’s plan works. A family can deal with congenital disabilities, as your author has learned from experience. We adopted three wonderful children, but one was born blind and mentally challenged, with cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, and schizophrenia. We reported our story in a booklet titled “Timothy, My Son and Teacher.” Tim had a good life, and we were blessed to be allowed to raise three children. Alternatives can be technologically possible, but collateral damage from playing God can bring extra pain to parenthood as well.

— John N. Clayton © 2024
Reference: “How ‘Snowflake Babies’ Could Change IVF Politics” in Politico magazine for October 6, 2024.

October 28, 2022October 26, 2022

God’s Original Equipment Is Better Than What Humans Make

One of the things I have learned about my body is that God’s original equipment is better than what humans make. The dental equipment that various dentists have put into my mouth has usually lasted only about 20 years, but I still have some of my original teeth. My eyes are starting to show aging after working well for years, but I go through glasses at an alarming rate. Trifocals don’t work as well as the eyes I had as a teenager.

The desire to put off children until later in life to pursue a career has caused many couples to freeze embryos for later in vitro fertilization. In Scandanavia, 78,000 human embryos have been frozen, and 18,000 pregnancies have resulted from in vitro fertilization. Studies show that 74% of the mothers who used IVF suffered from high blood pressure, while only 4.3% of women had blood pressure problems with natural childbirth.

High blood pressure is dangerous in pregnancy because it can lead to preeclampsia which can cause complications for both the mother and child. This has implications for the abortion issue and family planning organizations. The bottom line is that women must decide what is most important in their lives. God has given them the ability to have a baby, and God’s original equipment is better than what humans make. Having a child is a choice a woman should make, but babies should not be an afterthought.

The financial stresses on families may force women to make hard decisions. Still, human interference with the original design of the reproductive process causes significant problems for families, women, and babies. Which is more important, having a high-level career or raising a child? Trying to do both and doing them successfully is a daunting challenge.

Reference: CNN.com and The Week for 10/14/22, page 22