The grim reality of “selective reduction” received news coverage in recent months. Selective reduction is the euphemism used to describe killing selected babies in the womb by potassium chloride injection. This method is used when multiple embryos successfully implant and develop using in vitro fertilization (IVF). Recent news coverage also reveals the frequent use of selective reduction for couples who choose IVF to resolve infertility.

The Washington Post published a revealing article, “Too Much to Carry,” on May 20th that demonstrated the tragic human cost of IVF. “Too Much to Carry” portrayed the wave of selective reduction that often accompanies modern fertility treatments. Doing her best to put a human face on this inhumane procedure, author Liza Mundy visited the offices of Dr. Mark Evans to observe the dark side of IVF for herself.

The experience was an eye-opening one for her. If IVF were as simple as fertilizing one egg with one sperm, the process would be less troubling. Yet for many of these at-risk women, doctors insist that to make the pregnancies more “viable” there must be less competition in the womb. This often means that after “excess embryos” are created and implanted, some of these babies are killed based on tests performed to determine which of them are healthiest.

In some instances, Mundy was present for the “reductions” and describes the horror of seeing tiny lives, once active on the ultrasound screen, quickly silenced by a lethal injection to the heart. The “selection process” is also used to single out small victims that doctors suspect have Down syndrome or other maladies.

In one visit, Mundy describes the patient crying, “Oh, my gosh, I can really see it! I can see the fingers!” and then sobbing uncontrollably as the small baby goes still. Another woman says, “It’s killing me that we’re going to do this. I never thought I would feel that... I’m vehemently pro-choice.” Yet the sight of seeing the needle, as one nurse puts it, “chasing the babies” who try to get away, overwhelms mothers.  

This same nurse, a new mom herself, has trouble with the procedure because she feels like they are “playing God.” “Some of these people tried to get pregnant...and prayed to God. And now that they’re pregnant, they’re telling God, ‘You gave me too many.’” Rather than using IVF as an end to create life, the process is all too often a means that destroys life. Mundy’s report reveals the deadly reality of selective reduction common with IVF.

One month earlier, an article in the LA Times, written by Dan Neil, demonstrated the uncaring attitude developed by some parents in response to the killing of some of their children in the womb. The Neils had two boys and two girls. They chose to kill the boys. Neil wrote, “We didn’t want to. We didn’t mean to. We didn’t do anything wrong, which is to say, we did everything right. Four years ago, when Tina and I set out on this journey to have children, such a circumstance was unimaginable. And yet there I was, holding her hand, watching the ultrasound as a needle with potassium chloride found its mark, stopping the heart of one male fetus, then the other, hidden in my wife’s suffering belly. We don’t feel guilty. We don’t feel ashamed. We’re not even really sad, because terminating these fetuses, at 15 weeks’ gestation, was a medical imperative.”

Much better news came from Minnesota in June. A couple with six babies rejected pressure from doctors for selective reduction. After 22 weeks, Brianna Morrison gave birth to four boys and two girls. All six were in critical condition and weighed between 11 ounces and 1 pound, 3 ounces. Ryan and Brianna Morrison were not willing to choose death for some of their children. They wrote, “We understand that the risk is high, but we also understand that these little ones are much more than six fetuses. Each one of them is a miracle given to us by God.”

Unfortunately, the other deadly choice, maybe only made under pressure from the doctors, is much more common than the choice made by the Morrisons. However, some parents are now revealing the conflicted feelings they experience once they go home with the children they allowed to live. Concerns about the fact that those living could easily have been the ones killed and wondering what the missing children would have been like are common experiences.

NaProTECHNOLOGY offers a more reliable alternative than IVF for resolving fertility problems, and avoids the pressure for selective reduction common with IVF. For more information call 312-422-9300.

Update:  Tragically, five of the six Morrison babies have died as of July 23, 2007.  In comparison, another set of sextiuplets born in Arizona less than a day apart from the Morrison sextuplets are all considered relatively healthy and one went home in mid-July.  Only choosing the alternative of NaProTECHNOLOGY will reduce the risks created by IVF or fertility drugs.