The Problem with Reproductive Technologies

Summary

Christopher West examines the moral problems with IVF and reproductive technologies from a Theology of the Body perspective. He explains why the Church distinguishes between medical technology that aids the marital embrace in achieving its natural end and technology that replaces the marital embrace entirely. West traces how separating conception from the act of love leads to a cascade of further moral problems — from the destruction of embryos to a eugenic mentality — and ultimately represents a rejection of our creaturely relationship with God, who designed the sexual union as a sacramental sign of his own trinitarian, life-giving love.

Key Points

The distinction between aiding and replacing the marital act

• The Church is not opposed to medical technology that helps the marital embrace achieve its natural end — interventions that assist the conjugal act are morally acceptable
• What the Church opposes is technology that replaces the marital act entirely, separating the conception of new life from the bodily union of husband and wife
• IVF and similar procedures take the begetting of life out of the marital embrace and hand it over to laboratory technicians, fundamentally altering the meaning of how new life comes into being

The cascade of evils from separating love and life

• Once conception is separated from the marital embrace, a series of further moral problems follow inevitably
• Masturbation becomes required for sperm collection — an act the Church teaches is contrary to the dignity of human sexuality
• Excess embryos are routinely created and then frozen, discarded, or destroyed — each one a unique human life
• A eugenic mentality develops: embryos are screened and selected based on genetic traits, subjecting human beings to "quality control"
• Trafficking and commercialization of gametes (eggs and sperm) become normalized, treating the sources of human life as commodities

Contrary to the dignity of the child

• Children conceived through IVF are treated as products to be obtained rather than persons to be received and loved
• The child becomes subject to quality control measures — genetic screening, selection, and disposal of those deemed unfit
• Every child has a right to be conceived through an act of love between his or her parents, not manufactured in a laboratory

Contrary to the dignity of the spouses

• The privilege of begetting new life, which belongs uniquely to husband and wife, is delegated to doctors and technicians
• Rather than entrusting their fertility to God's providence and cooperating with his designs, spouses hand over their most intimate creative power to a third party
• This undermines the exclusive and irreplaceable role that spouses have in bringing new life into the world

Contrary to our creaturely status before God

• By seizing control over the origins of human life, we make ourselves masters of life rather than servants of God's designs
• The desire to have a child is good and natural, but the means by which we pursue that desire must respect our place as creatures before a Creator
• We are called to receive life as a gift from God, not to demand it as a product of our own technological will

The sexual union as sacramental sign

• Sexual union between husband and wife is a sacramental symbol of God's own trinitarian, life-giving love
• The fruitfulness of the marital embrace images the fruitfulness of God's inner life — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
• Seeking new life apart from the sexual embrace symbolically represents a rejection of union with God, choosing our own way over God's design
• The Church's teaching is ultimately about protecting the profound meaning that God has inscribed in the body and in sexual love

An invitation to mercy

• West closes by acknowledging the deep pain of infertility and the sincere desire of couples who turn to reproductive technologies
• He invites all who have been involved with IVF or similar procedures to open their hearts to God's mercy
• The goal is not condemnation but an invitation to embrace God's designs, trusting that his plan — even when it involves suffering — is ordered toward our ultimate good

Notable Quotes

"Medicine and technology that aid the marital embrace in achieving its natural end are good; technology that replaces the marital embrace is outside of God's plan." — Christopher West

"Children are not products to be obtained, but persons to be loved." — Christopher West

"The sexual union is a sacramental symbol of God's own trinitarian, life-giving love. Seeking life apart from that union symbolizes a rejection of union with God." — Christopher West

"We are called to be servants of God's designs for life, not masters of it." — Christopher West