Background:
There has been increasing prevalence of infertility (about 10-15% of all couples are infertile) and the difficulty of adopting a child (2 years through a private agency, 6 years through a government agency).
Each year in Canada, there are over 6,000 women participating in artificial insemination or in vitro fertilization (IVF) programs resulting in about 1,000 women giving birth to 1,500 babies (about 10 times in the US). The IVF success rate is about 25%.
o AI is the artificial introduction of sperm into the vaginal canal, for the purpose of conception.
o AIH: artificial insemination using sperm from husband
o AID: artificial insemination using sperm from donor
o A surrogate mother is artificially inseminated by the male spouse of an infertile couple and is paid to carry the baby to term. Another method involves planting of embryos from in vitro fertilization.
o Mature eggs are removed from a woman’s ovary and fertilized with sperm in the laboratory. After fertilization and incubation, the fertilized eggs (normally multiple eggs) are placed in the woman’s uterus.
o Embryo replacement: fertilized eggs were placed in the womb of the same woman who donated the egg.
o Embryo transfer: fertilized eggs placed into another woman.
· Fetal tissue transplant is effective for sufferers of many diseases.
· New reproductive technologies can help infertile couples to have children of their own. The intent is to further the bond of marriage and is morally justifiable. However, not all NRTs are justifiable.
· A general argument against such technologies is that they are interventions into the generation of life which is the prerogative of God. However, these technologies can be viewed as improvements to acceptable older methods of assisting conception (such as rhythm method or fertility drugs).
· The Roman Catholic Church opposes any kind of new reproductive technology. Their teaching is that sexual activity should only be for procreation and procreation should only be the fruit of marriage. However, 1Co 7:3-6 teaches that companionship is an essential element of marriage.
o Sperms of husband (AIH): acceptable because there is no ethical problems
o Problems of using sperms of donor (AID): (a) the intrusion into the marital relationship by a third person resulting negative effects on the family and parent-child relationship, (b) potential legal problem such as legitimacy of the child, (c) possibility of transmission of diseases such as AIDS, (d) possibility of incestuous marriages in the next generation, (e) possible use by single women and lesbians, and children from this procedure will be deprived of a natural father who exerts tremendous influence on a child’s life
o Problems: (a) the intrusion by a third person, and may disrupt the marriage, (b) the element of business transaction [selling one’s body for profit], (c) potential legal problem [the famous Baby M case] if the surrogate mother refuses to give up the baby, (d) possible use of the procedure by single women
o Some people try to justify surrogate motherhood by pointing to the case of Hagar (Gen 16), but Hagar was not a surrogate mother because she was part of the household. Further, this error of Abraham led to strife and envy between Arabs (descendants of Ishmail) and Jews (descendants of Isaac) today.
o Problems: (a) IVF often involves the destruction of extra unused embryos [which are lives], (b) risk of damaging the embryo in the process, (c) potential legal problems on the status of the embryos such as ownership, (d) embryo transfer has the same problem of third person intrusion, (e) possible use by single women, (f) health risk: significant increase in ovarian cancer [2 times higher for successful cases of IVF, 27 times for unsuccessful cases], (g) high failure rate [85-90%] meaning death of many embryos and huge expenses [>$10,000], (h) may need to kill some embryos if too many are successful
o The method should not be regarded as human creation of life because human eggs and sperms are used and the embryo must be implanted back to the mother shortly after fertilization.
o Problem of screening of diseases: unsuitable embryos [which are lives] will be destroyed
o Problems of sex selection: (a) it may destroy the natural balance of the sexes, the sex ratio may reach 130:100 instead of the normal 103:100 in India and in parts of China, (b) inappropriate preference of one sex (usually male) over the other
o Problems: it involves extraction of fetal tissues from a very cruel procedure of partial birth abortion because fetal tissues obtained from normal abortions are not useful because the fetus is already dead.
o Such research indirectly encourages more partial birth abortions.
o another reproductive option,
o chance of maintaining extinct species,
o can clone individuals of great genius, or pick the sex and physical characteristics of child,
o may be able to overcome genetic defects and diseases by cloning only healthy persons,
o clones could provide organs for transplants and could reduce rejection.
o unduly tampering with the natural order, and playing God with bypassing parenthood,
o encourage surrogate motherhood, single parent families, children in homosexual homes,
o abuse lives if clones are used to produce organs for transplant,
o loss of embryos in the process because of low success rate,
o problems of eugenics: favouring some individuals more than others
o deterioration of gene pool if too much cloning,
o could increase incidence of genetic diseases,
o could produce defective clones and possible malpractice suits,
o loss of uniqueness of individual persons
o many scientists recommend against it because of high chance of failure for humans