How to Reconcile God and IVF

Ok, so I did put on my blouse and skirt this weekend and went to my Presbyterian church, but I want to tell you, I don't consider myself to be a "religious" person in the typical sense of the word. In fact, I'd say my views align more with Buddism than any other religion. But the problem is, I don't really understand religion, it's dogmatic nature, and its many variations.

I guess that's why I found this article to be so straightforward and interesting:

The ethics of fertility: Reconciling God and 'Octomom'
Intelligencer Journal
Published: Mar 14, 2009

Recently, there have been debates worldwide about the birth of octuplets to an unemployed single mother of six small children in California.

Many people are enraged and say that taxpayers will end up paying for the children's care. Some have even sent death threats to "Octomom" Nadya Suleman.

Not long after the birth, the fertility specialist who implanted the large number of embryos also came under scrutiny for allowing the in vitro procedure despite knowing Suleman already had six children.

What do religious faiths teach about fertility treatments?

For the Rev. Jim Leaman of Groffdale Mennonite Church, Leola, and many in the Lancaster Conference, large families don't pose a problem, but some fertility treatments do.

"There is a concern, particularly, on the use of fertility treatment where multiple embryos are implanted in the uterus," Leaman said.

Because Mennonites do "very much affirm life," he said, when multiple embryos are implanted and several start to thrive, the decision to abort some of the embryos to reduce the number in the womb is "not affirmed."

"We would encourage counseling with spiritual leaders," Leaman said, "if using fertility treatment."

Mennonites also don't recommend fertility treatments for single women. "Our understanding is that parenthood is for couples who are married," he said. "It is God's plan for a husband and wife to become parents."

However, resources should be made available in the event a single woman does become pregnant, he said.

•••

The Rev. Kevin C. Rhoades, bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg, said because the issue is so complex there has been much teaching on it in the Catholic church. The document "Dignitas Personae" — promulgated with the explicit approval of the pope — deals with bioethical issues and procreation in the modern world, Rhoades said.

"Three 'goods' must be respected with medical treatments or techniques," he said.

The first is the right to life and physical integrity of every human being from the moment of conception. "Some techniques violate that right. The destruction of embryos is absolutely forbidden," Rhoades said.

The second is the unity of marriage. "You have to respect the right within marriage to become a father or mother only within the marriage together with the other spouse," he said. "For some treatments, there is a third-party donor of sperm or eggs."

Lastly is the belief that procreation should be brought about as "fruit of the conjugal act, specific to the love of spouses." This means that "the generation of a child must be the fruit of marital relations," Rhoades said.

The church doesn't allow the substitution of artificial fertilization, he said. "It is intrinsically immoral because it does not respect the dignity and sacredness of the conjugal act nor the rights and dignity of the embryos conceived," Rhoades said.

However, the church does allow interventions such as hormonal treatments and surgery for endometriosis or to unblock fallopian tubes, because they don't interfere with the conjugal act, Rhoades said.

"The Catholic Church supports those drugs which facilitate the conjugal act for a married couple having difficulties in this regard," Rhoades said, emphasizing "married."

"Drugs which are designed to help a married couple conceive must be used with responsibility and always with respect for the marital act and any children — embryos — which may result from these interventions."

The church's stance against in vitro fertilization has not stopped such embryos from being created. The church's position toward such embryos remains unresolved.

"Freezing of embryos is incompatible with the respect owed to the embryos because a lot don't survive the freeze/thaw process," Rhoades said.

For those thousands of already-frozen embryos, adopting them is a "praiseworthy intention to respect human life," but has many problems associated with it, he said.

"Though the Church has not ruled out the possibility of embryo adoption completely, it is leaning towards a negative judgment because embryo adoption involves the future parents in an immoral process," Rhoades said.

•••

"Judaism places a great value on having children," Rabbi Jack Paskoff of Congregation Shaarai Shomayim said in an e-mail. "The first commandment of the 613 that Jews identify in the Torah is to be fruitful and multiply."

"The '60's and '70s created an odd split in the Jewish community," Paskoff said. "There were those who said that after the Holocaust, we had a special duty to have more children to replace those lost during the Holocaust. At the same time, there was significant Jewish involvement in the zero population growth movement."

"For those who adhere to the traditional view, in vitro is considered acceptable when other means prove impossible," Paskoff said. "The traditional movements would certainly limit this to married couples, while many in the Reform movement would look for stable homes, regardless of marriage. These might include single parents as well as same-sex households."

Paskoff said the octuplet case raises questions about medical ethics for him.

"Should any individual or couple be bringing so many lives into the world when the means for providing for those children are severely limited? I question the reasoning of the mother and the willingness of the doctor," Paskoff said.

However, Paskoff said he cannot cite chapter and verse from Jewish sacred texts to support his thinking on the case.

•••

In the Hindu faith, there is not as strong an objection to the use of fertility drugs to conceive as there is in the Christian church, said Professor Jeff Long, chairman of the religious studies department of Elizabethtown College and a practicing Hindu.

Hinduism does, however, have a "mild discomfort" with it, Long said.

"The idea of karma is that whatever happens is the result of past action," he said. Therefore the "manipulation" of fertility would "go against (karma) and letting things happen."

Having large families is "prized" so if a couple has difficulties having children, there is no problem with helping it along, he said.

"But to have eight children suddenly is odd; and if they are not equipped to take care of them, it's irresponsible," Long said.

In "lived reality" in India (where Hinduism is quite popular), there is a population problem and the trend is toward smaller families, Long said. "Who wants to create a socioeconomic problem?"

Efforts to obtain comment from Imam Ibrahim Elsebaey of the Islamic Center of Lancaster County regarding Muslim attitudes toward fertility treatments were unsuccessful.

E-mail: lvaningen@lnpnews.com
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I don't know, aren't fertility treatments are a hard enough decision/process to go through without having the Church weigh in??