One of the arguments against in-vitro fertilization that the Catholic Church makes is that a baby should not be made into commodity – something that is bought or sold at whim….and something that can easily be discarded. IVF is a tough subject because of all the emotions that go into truly wanting to have a child and being unable to for some reason or another. There are many heartbreaking stories of childless parents who would do anything to conceive and bring a child into the world.
But as Pope John Paul II taught, the end cannot justify the means: “It is not licit to do evil that good may come of it.”[iv]
And now we come to a story that exemplifies how having a baby through IVF turns a baby into a commodity.
“About 80 unborn babies conceived by in vitro fertilization (IVF) are eliminated by abortion each year in Great Britain, according to a new report…. The statistics from Britain’s Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) show an increasing number of women are choosing abortion for ‘social,’ rather than medical reasons after becoming pregnant by IVF, The Times reported June 6.”
It’s not like these women had an unexpected pregnancy. They aborted mostly for “social” reasons, reasons that (not to be judgmental) put the lives of their baby on the backburner and put their needs and wants above anything else. One woman said that her marriage was falling apart at the time she got pregnant via IVF and that she “didn’t want any link” that would force her to stay in touch with her husband. Not to say that a marriage wouldn’t fall apart if the baby was conceived through the loving marital act of selfless giving of each other, but it just seems so cold that the resulting child in this situation would merely be a link to her husband and not the result of love, even if it no longer exists, a human person in its own right.
As R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, wrote on his blog: “We are witnessing the elevation of personal autonomy, personal happiness, and personal fulfillment to levels that can only be described as idolatry.”
If this is happening in Great Britain, the likelihood that the same thing is happening in the US is very high. When will we wake up to the atrocities of trying to play God?
On the heels of Pope Benedict XVI’s declaration of Pope John Paul II’s life of “heroic virtue,” Catholic News Agency features a terrific interview with the Supreme Knight of the KOC, Carl Anderson. 
