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Rethinking the Ethics of Invitro Fertilization: Complicity with Ongoing Research and Current Use of Remaining Embryos

June 21, 2014

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Infertility is an emotionally charged, heart-breaking diagnosis for many couples. In vitro fertilization (IVF) is a medical technology used by some of these couples to treat their infertility. IVF in its essence (conceiving a child outside of the human body) is not unethical from a biblical perspective. However, the procedure was developed by immoral research (embryo-destructive). I make the case that IVF, as it is currently practiced, is unethical not because of the morally ambiguous problem of complicity with unethically derived data from the past, but because of ongoing unethically derived data. Investigators continue to do children-killing experimentation in order to improve the technique. Clinical practitioners implement the new discoveries. Therefore, those who participate in IVF are complicit with these ongoing immoral acts by benefitting from them, making IVF an unethical medical intervention. Furthermore, the way it is typically performed results in unwanted, cryopreserved children (so-called remaining embryos). This leads to other immoral practices such as child abandonment and killing. I argue that even embryo donation (intended for adoption) which is typically considered morally acceptable, is demonstrably unethical. If all embryo-destructive research for IVF ceased, then it may be ethically permissible under the condition that parents conceive no more than the number of children they are willing to raise. For all practical purposes, though, there is no end in sight for embryo-destructive research. Therefore, in vitro fertilization, as it is currently practiced, is unethical.

Keywords:
Assisted reproductive technologies; Embryonic research; Duty to children; Embryo adoption