Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is IVF ?

IVF stands for "in-vitro fertilization" and consists in putting spermatocytes (sperm from the male) in contact with oocytes (ovum from the female) inside a test tube to facilitate fertilization. The fertilized ovum or zygote (an embryo) is then transfered to the uterus where they continue their normal development.

2. How is this carried out?

The sperm is usually obtained from the man by masturbation while the oocytes are from the mother or a donor by puncture of the ovary.

3. Why is it wrong ?

Several moral principles are violated with IVF:

(I) If the donors are not married to each other (as in a heterologous artificial insemination & fertilization i.e. a donor other than the married couple), it infringe's the child's right to be born of parents known to him and bound to each other in marriage.

(II) If only the married couple in involved, the procreative act (in the creatiion of the baby) is disassociated from the act of sexual intercourse of the parents. Thus the unitive & procreative significance of the marital act is seperated and the child is not the fruit of the sexual union but rather of a technological process. This is against the dignity of the child who is now merely the product of such a process. The child has a right to be the fruit of the marital act of the love between his parents.

(III) As usually 1 to 4 embryoes are transferred to the uterus to improve the posibility of pregnancy, a large number of embryos must be produced to proceed with IVF. The unused enbryos are then ultimately either discarded or donated for destructive research, both of which involes the killing of the embryos. As the embryos are undoubtedly innocent human lives, (we all started our lives as embryos), their delibrate killing violates the embryo's (the child's) right to life.

(IV) The freezing of the spare embryos constitutes an offence against the respect due to human beings by exposing them to the grave risks of health or harm to their physical integrity.

(V) Obtaining semen (spem) by masturbation is morally illicit. Why masturbation is intrinsically disordered.

4. When is fertility treatment morally licit?

So called "improper " artificial insemination is licit as in the following techniques whereby they merely facilitate and not substitute for the conjugal act. viz dilation of the uterine cervix, collection of the semen found in the vaginal recess and its ulterior reintroduction into the uterus- so that sexual union can result in pregnancy.

(New Moral Treatment)

5. What moral options are there for married infertile couples then?

The Gospel shows that physical sterility is not an absolute evil. Spouses who suffer from infertility after exhausting legitmate medical procedures should unite themselves with the Lord's sufferings. They can give expression to their generosity through the adoption of children or live out their parental instinct by having "spiritual" children, by caring and loving for others in a deeper way. A child is always a gift and not a right, and respecting it as gift means we do not have a right to demand to have a child by any means.

6. Is the Church insensitive to the needs such couples?

No, as the Church is both mother & teacher to all her members, she acts in a way that is in the best interest for all in the light of the Gospel values and the moral laws of God. These involves the dignity of the unborn child, his right to life, and to be "begotten" by his parents' mutually self giving love in the marital act and not "made" by a technological proccess. The Church also recognises the meritorious and redemptive value of human suffering of the infertile couple and challeges them to a more supernatural vision of their parental calling. (More)

Catholic Teachings on IVF from the Catechism of the Catholic Church

2376 Techniques that entail the dissociaation of husband and wife, by the intrusion of a person other than the couple (donation of sperm or ovum, surrogate uterus), are gravely immoral. These techniques (heterologous artificial insemination and fertilization infringe the child's right to be born of a father and mother known to him and bound to each other by marriage. They betray the spouses' right to become a father and a mother only through each other.

2377 Technoques involving only the married couple (homorologous artificial insemination and fertilization) are perhaps less reprehensible, yet remain morally unacceptable. They dissociate the sexual act from the procreative act. The act which brings the child into existence is no longer an act two persons give themselves to one another, but that entrusts the life and identity of the embryo into the power of doctors and biologistd and establishes the dominion of technology over the origin and destiny of the human person. Such a relationship of denomination is in itself contrary to the dignity and equality that must be common to parents and children. Under the moral aspect procreation is deprived of its proper perfection when it is not willed as the fruit of the conjugal act, that is to say, of the specific act of the spouses' union ... Only respect for the link between the meaning of the conjugal act and respect for the unity of the human being make possible procreation in conformity with the dignity of the person.

2378 A child is not something owed to one but is a gift. The upreme gift of marriage is a human person. A child may not be considered a piece of property, an idea to which an alleged right to a child would lead. ...