Fri 24 Oct, 2008
Cold-Hearted Medical Professionals
Comments (0) Filed under: Culture of Life, Human Dignity, Medical Ethics, New Birth TechnologyTags: cryogenics, embryos, human dignity, human persons, in vitro fertilization, IVF
Claims by the Catholic Church that in vitro fertilization and other “new birth technologies” treat children as a commodity to be bought and sold are often met with scorn. After all, parents who desire to have children are always motivated by love, right? But even when we are striving for a good thing, such as starting our family, the way we go about attaining it matters as much as our goal. The negative effects of in vitro fertilization are cultural even more than personal.
On the personal level, a woman undergoing in vitro fertilization allows her body to be manipulated like a machine. Reproduction, which is supposed to be a beautiful act of love, becomes a mechanical act of fertilization.
On the social level, reproduction and its “product” (children) become a commodity to be bought and sold. We start to see family as a material right (like our i-phones, ipods, laptops, etc) rather than as a calling to love.
Are you scoffing? Perhaps an insider’s look into the professional medical community would help. A professional Ob-Gyn journal ran the following two ads:
Embryos piling up? Let us take care of your embryo storage needs.
These fertilized ovum are tiny human beings. Are they being loved? No – they have become a storage problem. How about this one?
Who’s watching the kids? Cryolert tank alarms offer true peace of mind, safeguarding your priceless biologicals.”
Now these children are “priceless biologicals.”
Dr. Hilgers briefly discussed these ads at the NaPro TECHNOLOGY conference I attended last Saturday. His comment was that doctors can now look at these ads without batting an eye. “Our profession has become awfully cold-hearted.”
It is no secret that most medical professionals and many people in the culture at large do not see fertilized ovum as human beings. What is less known is that abortion is not the only cause of this callous redefinition of human personhood. In vitro fertilization has done a lot of damage to our capacity to keep love and life united.
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