As usual I am behind on my podcast but thought I would leave some thoughts on the IVF for you. Something that really helped me to understand the church teachings on this one was Janet Smith’s talk on this. It is one of a 12 disc. The series is called Sexual Commonsense and the talk in particular is Reproductive Technologies, Why not? She basically explains Donum Vitae which is the churches specific teachings on this. http://www.cin.org/vatcong/donumvit.html

Yes, there is the obvious reason against it of removing the sexual act from reproduction that is wrong but the other issue is that in order to do IVF, generally several fertilized eggs are placed to create one child. And if more than one is created, some times it is elected to selectively abort the ones that aren’t wanted. So, because it creates these problems, and many others, the church is against it.

Janet Smith really does an EXCELLENT job of explaining this and I highly encourage you to get her talk, it can actually be downloaded from this site: http://www.mycatholicfaith.org/storefront/index.php?cPath=29 For the “excess” embryos she acknowledges that there is no formal teaching on this; and it is highly debated. On the one hand it violates the sexual relationship between the spouses; others do see this as an early term adoption. She leans towards the second opinion, but you are also aiding and abetting the industry by cooperating with the IVF clinics and is that what we want to do?

So, until the church says something I guess each person really does have to take this one to God and ask Him what He wants us to do. I’ve been blessed with 3 boys so far and so thankfully, this isn’t one I have had to consider.