Why Not In-Vitro?

"A couple whose frozen embryo was accidentally destroyed at a fertility clinic have the right in Illinois to file a wrongful-death lawsuit, a judge has ruled in a case that some legal experts say could have implications in the debate over embryonic stem cell research.

Their doctor said one embryo looked particularly promising, but the Chicago couple were told six months later the embryos had been accidentally discarded. " --Taken from a Miami Herald article on Sunday, Febraury 6th (www.miamiherald.com)

There is one one reason why not. How careful will be if they don't realize they're holding your babies? To them, those petri dishes hold genetic matter, not children. And you can't trust someone with that mindset with your babies. You don't know what happens behind closed doors. There are some genetic tests that doctors use to determine which embryos will be healthiest that actually kill some of them.

Cryoperservation is another reason not to pursue in-vitro. I read that 50% of children die in the thawing process. 50%! How on earth can people who claim to want children so badly be willing to kill half of them?? I asked my doctor if he could do in-vitro with 3 eggs and implant all three. He refused, saying that was not how the procedure was done at his clinic. Harvest, fertilize, then freeze or discard.

Selective Reduction. If a a woman has 6 embryos implanted, and 5 of them survive, the doctors will choose the 3-4 "weakest" and abort them. How can that be healthy for the child or children that mother decides she is going to carry? You would think she would at least have concern for that if she somehow fails to realize that these are all her children!

I do not believe there is anything fundamentally wrong with a doctor taking sperm and an egg from a married couple and using that to help them get pregnant. That seems to be part of man's God-given mandate to subdue the earth. But we are not allowed to subdue the earth for our own pleasure and ends. We can't violate God's commands in our subugation of creation. But unfortunately the vast majority of doctors in reproductive endcrinology do not fear God. They do not value life. It is incredibily ironic and tragic that doctors trained solely to help bring life into the world from dead wombs, doctors of life and hope, are also doctors of death.

Brian and I considered in-vitro very strongly when we found out that we couldn't concieve on our own. We are excellent candidates for it, since I am only 24 and have a perfectly healthy uterus. But we couldn't find a doctor who shared a commitment to life and we decided that was a risk that we just couldn't take. Even if we could get a doctor to agree to our stipulated way of doing things (which would difficult, because it could make their clinic sucess rates drop, which would lead to less business) you just can't trust someone who differs that greatly from you. Not in a matter of life and death. It would be like hiring a sociopath to babysit.

I strongly encourage anyone interested in in-vitro to check out embryo adoption. This is a great christian ministry dedicated to thawing out these little ones and giving them a shot at life. Their web-site is www.snowflakes.org .