The Nobel Prize in medicine this year has been awarded to Robert Edwards, the man responsible for developing in vitro fertilization. Scientifically, of course, IVF was a major development; morally, it has been disastrous. Reports estimate that around 4 million children have been born through IVF treatments since 1978 — but who knows how many millions more embryos have been frozen, discarded, or “selectively reduced.”
In a Detroit Free Press column titled “Even in petri dish, life merits protection,” Bishop Allen Vigneron addresses the moral implications of embryonic stem cell research — implications that extend to IVF as well:
We are blessed to live in a country with some of the most extraordinary founding documents in history. If, indeed, we believe we were “created equal,” doesn’t that belief extend to the indefensible living embryo in a petri dish? “Unalienable rights” means they can’t be taken away by the state.
Orthodox. Faithful. Free.
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Doesn’t that apply to science as well? And what of “life” in “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”? First, it must begin….
Embryos are the genesis of human life, and it is morally unacceptable to intentionally destroy them, even if the scientist is trying to cure a debilitating disease or parents are responding to a difficult challenge in their family life. The country we live in defends human rights at home and abroad. That defense must extend to the laboratory.
Read Bishop Vigneron’s full remarks here.