Progressives are all about “reproductive rights.” These mythical rights are not just about terminating life in the womb, but about putting life there any way possible. It really doesn’t matter if mass producing human life in a dish is healthy for the children that result; it is all about what the parents want. After all, the parents have a “right” to reproduce.
IVF has become human manufacturing to specifications. Make as many embryos as possible, implant more than one woman could safely carry in one pregnancy and when things work too well, just get rid of the extras with “selective reduction.”
The total disregard for human life, both of the mother and the children, is staggering.
And while other countries have regulations in place that control the fertility industry to protect women, children and families, the United States has none. Italy and Germany have laws that prohibit fertilizing more than three eggs at a time and require that any resulting embryos be transferred to their mother’s womb. Belgium only allows at single embryo be transferred in women under 36. And the UK and Canada, women under 40 are limited to 2 embryos. (Interestingly enough, Sweden has probably the most strict regulations on IVF. Single women are not allowed to get IVF in Sweden. A couple has to be married or a in stable relationship for over 2 years. Using donor eggs is prohibited and so is surrogacy.)
In the U.S. we expect the medical professionals in the fertility industry to regulate themselves. That means we have Octomom.
It is time the United States caught a clue and realize that regulating the fertility industry is not about infringing on “reproductive rights.” It is about safety. We continue to allow doctors to use vulnerable women and the children that result from IVF as guinea pigs.
A Huffington Post writer agrees. Dr. S. Lochlann Jain writes in her piece “We Must Regulate Reproductive Technology” about the dramatic increase of premature births and long term health problems that have resulted from a laissez faire fertility industry:
With the U.S. fertility industry worth an estimated three billion dollars, IVF is a major income generator for medical institutions. To generate business, fertility specialists publicize their statistics on live births rather than thriving babies. After the embryos are implanted though, these doctors walk away — too often from difficult pregnancies, ill babies, and the life-long struggles of the children and parents resulting from prematurity.
This unregulated free-market approach to fertility is nothing short of human experimentation based in financial incentive and medical hubris.
As my kids would say, “Booyah!” Thank-you Dr. Jain. I have been saying that IVF is human experimentation for years. And now someone else has said it. And at the Huffington Post no less!
Now of course the mere suggestion of regulating the fertility industry by Congress did not go over well at the HuffPo. Comments reveal that while progressive are fine with government taking over health care in general, they are not fine with the feds regulating IVF. That would be much too dangerous. Much too much governmental intrusion.
This is surreal of course because the Church has warned society for years that conceiving children in a dish is not good for them. They deserve to begin their lives from an act of love between their genetic parents and in the safety of their own mother’s womb. Anything less and their inherent dignity is compromised.
Which is why the Holy Father recently urged research into the causes of infertility so the human manufacturing of IVF would not be needed. From Catholic Culture:
Proper treatment on infertility, the Pope said, should be “most respectful of the human condition of the people involved.” He decried the current approach, dominated by “scientism and the logic of profit,” and said that the heavy promotion of in vitro fertilization is restricting research on more promising techniques.
Dr. Jain also decried the lack of respect for children and the profit motive in the fertility industry. She profoundly ended her piece with this:
Congress must regulate the number of embryos fertility specialists can transfer through IVF…. the people with the most to lose from its unregulated use are those least able to consent: the potential children produced.
It is nice to see that at least someone at the Huffington Post is moving in the right direction.
