{"id":10628,"date":"2025-04-11T16:05:09","date_gmt":"2025-04-11T20:05:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cardinalnewmansociety.org\/?p=10628"},"modified":"2025-04-11T16:10:46","modified_gmt":"2025-04-11T20:10:46","slug":"teaching-the-truth-about-ivf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cardinalnewmansociety.org\/teaching-the-truth-about-ivf\/","title":{"rendered":"Teaching the Truth About IVF"},"content":{"rendered":"

The practice of in vitro<\/em> fertilization (IVF) is so anti-life it astonishes people who believe it is a positive and compassionate scientific breakthrough enabling infertile couples and others to have children. Yet even as IVF grows in popularity, including support from the Trump administration, most secular schools and universities refuse to teach the truth about it. Catholic educators, then, must be public witnesses to the evils of IVF, enlightening their students about its dangers while standing firm and refusing to cooperate with IVF coverage in student and employee health plans.<\/p>\n

How would any objective person evaluate a medical procedure that killed or left in suspended animation over 90 percent of its patients? IVF generally results in the live birth of only approximately 10 percent of the embryos conceived using this technique. \u201cThe IVF industry treats human beings like products and freezes or kills millions of children who are not selected for transfer to a womb or do not survive,\u201d says the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.<\/p>\n

The Catechism of the Catholic Church in paragraphs 2376-2378 makes it abundantly clear that IVF and similar artificial reproductive technologies are gravely immoral and \u201cdissociate the sexual act from the procreative act.\u201d The Church affirms that children have the right to be respected as a person from the first moment of conception\/fertilization and not to be treated like an object.<\/p>\n

A pro-life philosophy is one that affirms all human beings must have their right to life respected from the first moment of their lives. It is nonsensical to call IVF \u201cpro-life,\u201d as a few groups do, because it helps some couples bear children. Yes, assisting people to have babies is pro-life, but not when the price is the deaths of multiple children for every one that is born alive. Would one call a medical intervention that prevented the deaths of some sick patients \u201cpro-life,\u201d if it killed several people for each person that it saved?<\/p>\n

The procedure euphemistically known as \u201cpregnancy reduction\u201d is obviously anti-life. Since IVF-conceived embryos frequently do not implant and develop, it has been common for technicians to put three or more embryos in the woman. (Thankfully, in recent years the trend has been towards the transfer of fewer embryos.) If, however, multiple embryos survive and go forward, IVF doctors often counsel their clients to abort all but one of the babies, in order not to have more than the one desired child and to reduce the increased health risks attendant on twin, triplet, etc. pregnancies. Eugenics also comes into play, since the doctor uses an ultrasound to guide the fatal needle into the hearts of the fetuses deemed the least healthy. One might think that a couple seeking to overcome infertility would be happy to welcome twins, but the most common \u201cpregnancy reduction\u201d abortions are the killing of one preborn child to prevent the birth of twins.<\/p>\n

Some argue they could do IVF without conceiving large numbers of embryos, or they could transfer all of their children to the womb and avoid intentionally killing any of them. Would this be \u201cpro-life\u201d IVF? It certainly reflects a pro-life attitude, but it is not pro-life to expose one\u2019s children to tremendous risk of death through IVF procedures. At each stage in the process, these tiny human beings are at risk. Their conception and early life in the artificial atmosphere of a lab results in some deaths. Freezing and thawing them for transfer kills many. The embryos frequently fail to implant in the womb or are fatally miscarried at higher rates than normal pregnancies. Children conceived through IVF are at greater risk of fatal and non-fatal genetic anomalies and health problems. Thus, beyond the ethical violations inherent in causing conception to happen outside of the mother\u2019s body, IVF is also incompatible with the pro-life parental concern that refuses to intentionally place one\u2019s future children in harm\u2019s way.<\/p>\n

The instruction from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Dignitas Personae, <\/em>sums up the anti-life nature of IVF: \u201cThe blithe acceptance of the enormous number of abortions involved in the process of in vitro<\/em> fertilization vividly illustrates how the replacement of the conjugal act by a technical procedure\u2014in addition to being in contradiction with the respect that is due to procreation as something that cannot be reduced to mere reproduction\u2014leads to a weakening of the respect owed to every human being. Recognition of such respect is, on the other hand, promoted by the intimacy of husband and wife nourished by married love.\u201d<\/p>\n

My wife and I suffered from infertility until the conception of our daughter Therese, over eight years into our marriage. We explored and pursued many treatments for infertility. IVF, however, never tempted us because of our Catholic faith and our deep pro-life convictions. Couples faced with infertility show the sacrificial love typical of good parents when they refuse to agree to the \u201cquick fix\u201d of IVF that practically guarantees some of their offspring will die in pursuit of a slim chance of a \u201cbabe in arms.\u201d Children and parents deserve better than IVF. Thankfully, ethically sound restorative reproductive medicine is available and helps couples fulfill their dream of parenthood, without incurring the guilt of sacrificing lives to attain the blessing of a family.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Joseph Meaney, PhD, KM<\/strong><\/p>\n

Past President and Senior Fellow of The National Catholic Bioethics Center<\/strong><\/p>\n

jmeaney@ncbcenter.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The practice of in vitro fertilization (IVF) is so anti-life it astonishes people who believe it is a positive and compassionate scientific breakthrough enabling infertile couples and others to have children. Yet even as IVF grows in popularity, including support from the Trump administration, most secular schools and universities refuse […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":10629,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"issue":[],"item_type":[],"coauthors":[489],"class_list":["post-10628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"yoast_head":"\nTeaching the Truth About IVF - Cardinal Newman Society<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A graduate of a faithful Catholic college believes daily prayer is critical\u2014and she\u2019s sharing a new tool to help young people develop a prayer routine.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cardinalnewmansociety.org\/teaching-the-truth-about-ivf\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Teaching the Truth About IVF - Cardinal Newman Society\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A graduate of a faithful Catholic college believes daily prayer is critical\u2014and she\u2019s sharing a new tool to help young people develop a prayer routine.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/cardinalnewmansociety.org\/teaching-the-truth-about-ivf\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Cardinal Newman Society\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-04-11T20:05:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-04-11T20:10:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/cardinalnewmansociety.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/AdobeStock_668899082-1-1-1030x687.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1030\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"687\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Joseph Meaney, PhD, KM\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Joseph Meaney, PhD, KM\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardinalnewmansociety.org\/teaching-the-truth-about-ivf\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cardinalnewmansociety.org\/teaching-the-truth-about-ivf\/\",\"name\":\"Teaching the Truth About IVF - 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Reilly is President, CEO, and Founder of The Cardinal Newman Society, which promotes and defends faithful Catholic education. Since 1993, the Society has led a movement of educators and parents to uphold clear standards of truth and fidelity in Catholic education and to build up a strong core of faithful Catholic schools, homeschools, colleges, and graduate programs. This is done in full accord with the Magisterium of the Catholic Church and to promote the vision of the Society\u2019s holy patron, Saint John Henry Newman. Patrick also serves as an adjunct professor teaching rhetoric at Holy Apostles College and Seminary and a teacher and developer of logic, rhetoric, and philosophy courses for students grade 7-12 at Aquinas Learning, a classical Catholic hybrid school founded and led by his wife, Rosario. He has authored and edited many articles, reports, studies, and other publications on Catholic education for The Cardinal Newman Society and national media; addressed audiences for national and local Catholic organizations; and appeared on EWTN, FOX News, MSNBC, and numerous radio programs. Patrick was awarded Honorary Doctorates of Humane Letters from Benedictine College (Atchison, Kan.) in 2022 and Holy Apostles College and Seminary (Cromwell, Conn.) in 2008. He also was awarded the Catholic Culture Award from Our Lady Seat of Wisdom College (Barry\u2019s Bary, Ontario) in 2023; the Excellence in Youth Ministry Award from the Diocese of Arlington in 2019; the Lumen Vitae Medal from the University of Mary in 2018; the Miles Militantis Ecclesiae Award from the Brent Society of the Diocese of Arlington in 2011; the Hall of Fame Award from the Catholic Education Foundation in 2009; and the Spes Nostra Award from the National Association of Private Catholic and Independent Schools in 2003. He previously served as editor and research fellow at Capital Research Center, executive director of Citizens for Educational Freedom, higher education analyst at the U.S. House of Representatives, program analyst at the U.S. Department of Education, media consultant for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and chairman of American Collegians for Life. 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Reilly is President, CEO, and Founder of The Cardinal Newman Society, which promotes and defends faithful Catholic education. Since 1993, the Society has led a movement of educators and parents to uphold clear standards of truth and fidelity in Catholic education and to build up a strong core of faithful Catholic schools, homeschools, colleges, and graduate programs. This is done in full accord with the Magisterium of the Catholic Church and to promote the vision of the Society\u2019s holy patron, Saint John Henry Newman. Patrick also serves as an adjunct professor teaching rhetoric at Holy Apostles College and Seminary and a teacher and developer of logic, rhetoric, and philosophy courses for students grade 7-12 at Aquinas Learning, a classical Catholic hybrid school founded and led by his wife, Rosario. He has authored and edited many articles, reports, studies, and other publications on Catholic education for The Cardinal Newman Society and national media; addressed audiences for national and local Catholic organizations; and appeared on EWTN, FOX News, MSNBC, and numerous radio programs. Patrick was awarded Honorary Doctorates of Humane Letters from Benedictine College (Atchison, Kan.) in 2022 and Holy Apostles College and Seminary (Cromwell, Conn.) in 2008. He also was awarded the Catholic Culture Award from Our Lady Seat of Wisdom College (Barry\u2019s Bary, Ontario) in 2023; the Excellence in Youth Ministry Award from the Diocese of Arlington in 2019; the Lumen Vitae Medal from the University of Mary in 2018; the Miles Militantis Ecclesiae Award from the Brent Society of the Diocese of Arlington in 2011; the Hall of Fame Award from the Catholic Education Foundation in 2009; and the Spes Nostra Award from the National Association of Private Catholic and Independent Schools in 2003. He previously served as editor and research fellow at Capital Research Center, executive director of Citizens for Educational Freedom, higher education analyst at the U.S. House of Representatives, program analyst at the U.S. Department of Education, media consultant for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and chairman of American Collegians for Life. 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