In-vitro fertilization is now frequently sought by couples who experience infertility. This technological approach to procreation encounters many failures so physicians are motivated to implant as many as 10 embryos in order to increase the odds of a successful pregnancy, or to create extra embryos that can be used later. When more children are implanted than desired, the doctor often recommends use of fetal reduction to keep the pregnancy manageable. When more embryos are created than are wanted or used by the parents, the problem of frozen embryos arises. Because more and more infertile couples are now seeking in-vitro fertilization, the numbers of frozen embryos have multiplied.

The practice of fetal reduction presents one strong illustration of why in-vitro fertilization is morally unacceptable. Another moral problem is the creation of excess embryos which are frozen and stored and permission is sought to donate them for research. The Catholic Church has spoken out against the practice of in-vitro fertilization because this technological approach “entrusts the life and identity of the embryo into the power of doctors and biologists and establishes the domination of technology over the origin and destiny of the human person. Such a relationship of domination is in itself contrary to the dignity and equality that must be common to parents and children. Marriage does not confer upon the spouses the right to have a child, but only the right to perform those natural acts which are per se ordered to procreation.” (Donum Vitae) Fetal reduction clearly demonstrates where this “domination of technology” leads us. Additional morally unacceptable circumstances occur with regard to the disposition of excess embryos, the freezing of excess embryos for future use, experimentation on these embryos, killing them to obtain stem cells, and attempting to clone human beings.

The disregard of moral principles in the creation of new life has resulted in the proliferation of in-vitro fertilization and the resulting “excess” human embryos which have now become the lure for the scientific community to use them for research. In 1996, Congress outlawed Federal funding for “research in which the human embryo or embryos are destroyed, discarded or knowingly subjected to risk of injury or death.” The Clinton administration tried an end-run around the law by arriving at a so-called compromise that would allow the use of funds for research as long as someone else did the killing. That effort has resulted in the current debate over stem cell research that led to President Bush’s recent decision. That decision allows research with stem cells that have already been retrieved but prohibits the killing of any more embryos for research. It is clear that a return to the moral values that guide us in the creation of life will help us find the path to restore respect for all life.