Originally published at National Catholic Register
IVF Not Demeaning
Regarding “IVF Demeans the Lives It Creates” (In Depth, Oct. 20 edition):
Has the author of this piece met any of the children whose lives she claims to have been demeaned?
Or the parents whose love has deepened because of the miracle of birth made possible by IVF?
The author stands behind a rigid belief “that IVF involves the killing of many humans for the sake of those who are brought to birth.” She is wrong.
The simple union of an egg and a sperm creates a zygote, not a human person. It is true that egg-sperm zygotes are human, because their source is two humans. However, only a small fraction of zygotes ever attach so that development can occur. Most are sloughed through normal bodily reactions.
There is no clear moment when a zygote becomes a person, because “person” is a philosophical concept. A zygote is a single cell formed after fertilization of an egg cell by sperm.
A zygote contains the entire DNA of the baby — this is human, no question. An embryo develops from the zygote and undergoes meiosis and mitosis.
Becoming an embryo and attaching and forming a fetus
