Why Would It Not Be Ok?

Trump has been in the news for a lot of reasons ever since he became president. One of the main focuses has been on the amount of executive orders he has signed since he was inaugurated. One that was just signed has to do with in vitro fertilization or IVF. World News reports, “President Donald Trump on Tuesday ordered policy recommendations for securing Americans’ access to in vitro fertilization and aggressively reducing its cost. The procedures to fertilize and implant eggs can be prohibitively expensive, ranging from $12,000 to $25,000 per IVF cycle, the White House said. The executive order directs the president’s domestic policy assistant to submit the recommendations within 90 days. On the campaign trail, Trump said he wanted the government or insurance companies to cover IVF costs, making it free for families.”

On the surface this doesn't seem like a big deal. Who wouldn’t want to help families have kids! Even as Christians we are pro-life and would promote anything that would allow people to have children and let that life thrive. But there is some cause for concern with this order by the president.

The first concern is who this is for? On the campaign trail the president mentioned that families should have this for free. But what does he mean by “family”? This may seem like a nit-picky thing to bring up, but I assure you it is not. When Trump signed the order he said, “Because we want more babies, to put it very nicely.” The president continued, “And for the same reason, we will also allow new parents to deduct major newborn expenses from their taxes so that parents that have a beautiful baby will be able to, so we’re pro-family. But the IVF treatments are expensive. It’s very hard for many people to do it and to get it, but I’ve been in favor of IVF right from the beginning.”  

That is a nice thing but who will get this access? Christians are pro family…but not profamily in the modern sense. Will a homosexual couple, for instance, be able to use these government funds to get a child? This the president doesn’t clarify for us. Hopefully this becomes more clear as the research for this develops. But this is still a concern for the church about what kind of families we are promoting.

The next concern is IVF in and of itself. I want to be careful here. I hope people hear my heart. Many people, many of Christian people, have used IVF to have children. As I already said, we as Christians think if a couple wants to have a baby, that is a good thing. Why hate on it? It is biblical for a married couple to have children. And that seems to end the conversation. But the church needs to reflect more on this technology. We need to ask more questions and explore more of this topic. There is more behind the surface that many have not ever realized.

Let's start with the question of life. According to the bible when does life begin? The answer is at the moment of fertilization; when the sperm and the egg join together. This has always been the traditional christian viewpoint. So once that fertilization begins, Christians believe, any termination after that point is abortion and thus murder. This is why Christians have never supported the morning after pill. Pretty much any genuine Christian would agree with this.

Now let's go to IVF. What is the process? In a lab, a man’s sperm and a woman's egg are brought together to develop an embryo. When the embryo is developed and strong enough, the embryo is implanted in the woman to finish out the pregnancy until the baby is born. And I think for a lot of Christians this is all we tend to think about. It is still the husband’s sperm and the wife’s egg, it is just that they are being brought together in a lab as opposed to the biological way. But this is where we need to know more information. We need to ask some questions about this to get more clarity. For instance: how many embryos are created? If it is more than one, what happens to the others that are not put inside the woman? If we believe that embryos are humans, shouldn’t we be just as concerned about those that are not used and brought to birth?

To answer these questions, on average anywhere from 10-20 embryos are created for every IVF. The doctors look to see which ones are the strongest and more likely to be successful in surviving for the full nine months. For the embryos that are not used generally one of three things happens to them: they are discarded, frozen or donated. Now you may see why christians need to think and talk more about this subject a little bit more. If they are discarded, shouldn’t we as christians think this is murder? What is the difference between that and someone taking the morning after pill? If they are donated, what are they being used for and why? And if they are just sitting there in a cryofreezer, is that humane? They are living humans, are they not? Should we be doing something that prevents them from thriving as human beings? This is where it is not so simple anymore.

Now to be clear, I am not against having babies. I am not opposing someone having the desire to want to start a family. These are all good, godly emotions. Someone may be reading this who has a child or grandchild from IVF. That is wonderful. You are very blessed for having them. They are humans made in the image of God and should be supported, loved and treated with dignity just like any other human. I am not saying they are anything less just because they came to be by IVF. I am not anti-baby. I am not anti-family. I am anti-method. It is the method of IVF that I am questioning. Is this something that is ethical and biblical? I am not even focusing on the children that came from IVF. It is the children that didn’t that I am worried about.  I am so pro-baby, pro-human, pro-life that I'm concerned about the other embryos that are not thriving right now. What about them? Some estimates have it as high as 1.5 million embryos are sitting in freezers right now in the US. And a lot of the reasons why it is like this  are because there is very little regulation by our government when it comes to the practice of IVF.

I am simply bringing some awareness to something that I don't think Christians have stopped to think about fully, if at all. I believe many of us are like Trump and are “pro-family” and “want more babies” and haven’t stopped to ask what is being done to get us that baby. Not all IVFs are the same. Every situation and circumstance is different. Not all IVFs are created equal. Which is why I am asking the questions to begin with. There might be other questions I should be asking, but I don’t even know enough to ask them! We need to be more clear about what is happening, before simply accepting something as good and right. We should not be quick to support something we do not know much about. We need to gain more understanding and then put it under the light of scripture. The church needs to have a bigger discussion on this issue. Because under Trump, it appears to be something we may end up having more of. And the church needs to be there with the godly response to the world’s actions.