President Trump has thrown his weight behind IVF, and it's past time for us to discuss it.

Blessings do not prove righteousness

An article like this is sure to stir up potent emotions, so allow me to disarm them before we continue. Children are a blessing, regardless of how they are begotten. Whole families have been made by IVF, and naturally they are incensed to hear it insulted. They know their family is a blessing, how could the means be evil if the ends are not?

In truth, it happens all the time that blessings are begotten by wickedness. Had Judas not betrayed Christ, He would not have been crucified, and the sins of all mankind would not be atoned. Was Judas right, then, to betray Christ? Clearly not. Judas' betrayal may indeed be the most wicked human deed ever committed, regardless of how blessed the fruits of his betrayal were. This is fundamental to Christian morality: the ends cannot be justified by the means.

With this in mind, let's continue.

Embryo Death

This year in the US, roughly 2 million embryos will be created in IVF treatments. Only 100,000 of them will result in live births. The other 1.5-1.9 million embryos die, most of them before implantation. As a reference, only 1 million pregnancies are aborted each year in the US, meaning IVF results in nearly twice as many human deaths as abortion.

Well-read IVF spokesmen will point out that natural pregnancy is not much better, insofar as most embryos conceived naturally also die. They fail to account for the difference in risk, however. It's true that 60-70% of naturally fertilized eggs die before birth, either before implantation or as a result of miscarriage. IVF conceptions fail even more frequently, though. 90-95% of embryos created by IVF will die before birth.

There is no moral justification for amplifying a human being's risk of death, under any circumstances, and IVF certainly does.

Human Dignity

Consider the image at the top of this article. Is this a dignified way to treat the creation of human life? God's design for conception takes place in the mother's body, that each child would be warmly embraced by his mother from the very moment of his creation. No one can truly say that a cold dish is a dignified substitute.

The poetry of creation doesn't stop there. As we know, the act of love is a necessary prerequisite to natural conception. How beautiful, that the love between spouses is the very thing that creates their children. You can imagine how IVF perverts this order of nature without illustration, I hope. Suffice it to say that IVF's substitute for sex is shameful.

Tampering with the Miraculous

I imagine all Christians agree that conception is a miracle. I ask, then, who is responsible for the miraculous? Is it not God? How can man dare to recreate His workmanship, then, without supposing to become gods ourselves? Is it any coincidence that only now, at our furthest from God, we invent the means to tamper with His miracles? No. It is indeed the spitting image of the age, to rip the miraculous from God's hands to tinker with it under a microscope.

Fertility belongs to Him. Overwhelmingly many examples from scripture support this: Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, Hannah, Samson's mother, Elizabeth, and the virgin Mary. In each case, God personally involves Himself in human affairs specifically to address the birth of a child.

Only He has the authority to create life, forcing His hand in the matter is unthinkable.

What do you think?

I look forward to reading your replies.

God bless you,

The Constantine Option