Having examined some of the moral issues surrounding in vitro fertilization (IVF) and the proper respect for life and marriage, we come to some of the issues regarding the proper respect for the children themselves who are created through this technique. For this we must look at how they are treated throughout the entire process.

From the start any child created through IVF is put at significantly greater risk than the typical child conceived through natural means. This should not surprise us. Even though possible, in IVF a child is created in neither the environment nor the manner God intended (as nature itself testifies).

Given that the child begins life outside their mother’s body, where survival is impossible beyond the very first stages of development, it should come as no surprise that his or her life is already at great risk.

Heightened risk exists throughout. Apart from the several “selection” processes which are typically involved, any of which may result in the child’s death, there are also the risks associated with the pregnancy itself, as evidenced by the low “success rates” of IVF, not to mention future health risks should the child actually be born.

Clearly any child conceived and developing is vulnerable to any number of potential complications and problems, but when we see many of those stemming from the process itself, and not simply from the natural order or circumstances beyond our control, we cannot but help see a rather stark contrast.

Apart from these concerns, a larger one also exists. From the moment of conception on, each child created through IVF is in one sense “expendable.” If there are concerns over their survivability, they may be discarded. If they are not chosen for implantation they may be frozen indefinitely as “spares” — useful only if there is a need for another embryo.

Even if they are growing within the mother, there is still the very real possibility that they would be determined to be “a hindrance or obstacle” to the survival of others which may have also been implanted. Throughout their value is determined by their usefulness — especially as it pertains to the fulfillment of someone else’s desire, or a better “success rate.”

This underscores another way in which the child is not treated with proper respect. Rather than as a unique, irreplaceable individual received as a gift, it becomes all too easy to view these human beings as simply products produced.

To receive a child as a gift is to recognize that they have a dignity and worth all their own from the first moment they exist, which therefore means that they can never be demanded, or seen as a possession, or the fulfillment of someone else’s “right.” To receive them as a gift demands of parents that they also fully respect the Creator’s design and plan for how they are to be brought into the world.

From their first moment they deserve the respect of a person. This respect must extend to how they are brought into existence.

We see the wisdom and the perfection of God’s design as it pertains to procreation. A man and a woman, in love with each other and consecrated in the sacrament of Marriage, share completely with each other the gift of self at the same time they receive the complete gift of the other. From this union comes new life — receiving soul from God and body from mother and father — in this way mirroring God Himself as a trinity of persons — each the same, yet each distinct, begetting new life from the union they share.

The Church upholds the right of every child to be conceived and brought into this world as our Heavenly Father designed and as our dignity demands, as the result of the loving union of a married couple, not just the result of the technical expertise of someone in a lab.

Look for more on this topic next month.