In Vitro Fertilization

In Vitro Fertilization

"The unexamined life is not worth living." With these words, Socrates stated the creed of reflective men and women and set the task for ethics: to seek, with the help of reason, a consistent and defensible approach to life and its moral dilemmas (Walters 22). Ethical inquiry is important to us when we are unsure of the direction in which we are heading. "New philosophy calls all in doubt," wrote John Donne in the wake of the Copernican Revolution and of Charles I's violent death, suggesting that new thoughts had challenged old practices (Donne). Today, new practices in the biomedical sciences are challenging old thoughts: "New medicine calls all in doubt" (Walters 22).

Few moral convictions are more deeply ingrained than that of the sanctity of life. If plausible once, however, the view that life is a "sacred process" (initiated, sustained, and finally halted by God) is now more difficult to maintain (Baier 1-4). Recent advances in the biomedical sciences allow us to intervene in, and sometimes take control of, the processes of life and death. Not only can death, quite often, be kept waiting by the bed or machine, doctors and scientists can now also intervene in, indeed, initiate the process of life: cloning and recombination of DNA are two examples; in vitro fertilization (IVF) is another (Walters 23).

It is not surprising, then, that in the wake of these revolutionary developments, bioethics is flourishing. Despite the obvious enthusiasm of philosophers to take a stand on many complex moral issues in the biomedical sciences, however, a curious skepticism pervades the enterprise (Walters 23). Take the comments by a dean of an Australian Medical School on the teaching of medical ethics:

Like any other lifelong clinical teacher I have firm views about such topics as euthanasia, continuing severe pain, acceptable and unacceptable risks of various treatments, the appropriate use of life support systems and numerous other matters of this sort which I discuss with my colleagues, assistants, and students but would not wish to teach dogmatically since much depends on the religious and ethical views which they may have and which also must command my respect ("Medical Ethics").

The paragraph suggests that although ethics is not a matter of dogmatism, it is a matter of personal preference or choice, something one cannot-or should not-argue about. Then there is another attitude, implied in a newspaper article by B.A. Santamaria, that ethical inquiry is useless unless those investigating bioethical issues have been "Ð'...endowed with authority by Almighty God [or] the Prime MinisterÐ'..." (Santamaria). Since the study of ethics is all about what is right and what is wrong, it is not possible to come to a correct conclusion unless one is directly appointed by God to make this conclusion. God is the only One who can correctly decree what is ethical and unethical; we as imperfect humans should not even attempt to do this job.

IVF raises many of these difficult moral issues. If the above conceptions about the nature of ethics were correct, however, discussion of these issues would either be futile (because morality is a matter of personal choice or opinion) or superfluous (because morality is what a divine or secular authority says it is) (Walters 23). In this paper, I want to suggest that it is not only possible, but also necessary to inquire into the ethics of such practices as IVF because the fact that we can do something does not mean that we ought to do it.

To begin with, I will provide the basic medical facts involving IVF to give a solid understanding of what goes into the whole process and what facts involving this process cause the questioning of the ethical and moral issues. Infertility affects about 4.9 million couples in the United States, or one in every twelve. Approximately one-third of infertility cases can be traced to causes in the female (Encarta). However, a small proportion of infertile women can produce healthy eggs but, although they have a normal uterus, they have damaged or diseased fallopian tubes which prevent the egg from passing from the ovary to the uterus (Warnock 29). Aside from conventional methods of fertility treatment, there are also several newer techniques, collectively known as assisted reproductive technology (ART). The best known of these is in vitro fertilization (IVF) (Encarta).

The concept of IVF is simple. A ripe human egg is extracted from the ovary, shortly before it would have been released naturally. The egg is then mixed with the semen of the husband or partner so that fertilization can occur. The fertilized egg, once it has started to divide, is then transferred back to the mother's uterus. It is common practice to transfer more than one embryo to a potential mother whenever possible because of the normal hazards that come along with pregnancy, such as the egg not attaching to the wall of the uterus (Warnock 29-30).

As many ripe eggs as are accessible are harvested. Each egg is then mixed with semen to achieve fertilization. Assuming there is no abnormality in the semen, the success rate of fertilization is usually at least 75%. When the time comes to transfer the embryos to the woman, it may be that only one embryo is suitable for transfer, or there may be several. The reason for transferring more then one embryo is that this should give the woman a better chance of achieving a pregnancy (Warnock 30).

Nearly 0.2% of American and 1% of British babies are being born after IVF. There are now more than 300,000 IVF babies worldwide. Patients stand in line for treatment, regardless of the stress, discomfort, and risks, and despite the fact that the success rate for the treatment is seldom better than 1 in 5 or 20% (Gosden 26-27). This surprisingly high number of IVF babies, and the many more IVF attempts that do not produce babies, which are currently being produced around the world present a need for the discussion of the ethical, or unethical-ness of in vitro fertilization.

To call an infant born as the result of IVF a "created" individual is to imply that there is some difference between a child conceived and brought to term in this way and one conceived in the womb and carried through completely to term by the mother. To many religious people, the work of creation belongs, in the first place, to God, as it is outlined in the creation stories of the book of Genesis. God is the one who creates life and order out of chaos. Mankind is the highest product of creation, made from materials, which are part of creation. To man, who is made in the image of God, there is given dominion over the created world and the authority to exercise a stewardship which