Washington, D.C. (21 June 2010) – American Life League today joined a growing international call for a ban on all in vitro fertilization practices.
Addressing the emerging problems created by these so-called reproductive technologies, Judie Brown, president of American Life League, said:
We know that IVF kills preborn children. We know that IVF can cause severe birth defects in those children lucky enough to be brought to term. It is time for a ban on this barbaric practice. I can think of no greater affront to human dignity than mixing human sperm with human ova via a petri dish. The result is a human being brought into the world not as a pure gift of love procreated within the sanctity of marriage, but rather as a commodity tested for quality control, set aside for future use or transferred to his or her mother.
“No couple has a right to a child; every child has a right to be procreated according to God’s design,” Brown continued, citing Donum Vitae (The Gift of Life): Instruction on Respect for Human Life In its Origin and on the Dignity of Procreation, which states in part:
On the part of the spouses, the desire for a child is natural: it expresses the vocation to fatherhood and motherhood inscribed in conjugal love. This desire can be even stronger if the couple is affected by sterility, which appears incurable. Nevertheless, marriage does not confer upon the spouses the right to have a child, but only the right to perform those natural acts, which are per se ordered to procreation. (57) A true and proper right to a child would be contrary to the child’s dignity and nature. The child is not an object to which one has a right, nor can he be considered as an object of ownership: rather, a child is a gift, “the supreme gift” (58) and the most gratuitous gift of marriage, and is a living testimony of the mutual giving of his parents. For this reason, the child has the right, as already mentioned, to be the fruit of the specific act of the conjugal love of his parents; and he also has the right to be respected as a person from the moment of his conception [biological beginning].
The United Kingdom’s Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) was the first to comment on yet another study that discovered a link between genetic defects and artificial reproductive technologies. The most recent study, by researchers at Maternité Port Royal Hospital in Paris, found that birth defects are twice as high in IVF-conceived children than was previously believed.
American Life League was cofounded in 1979 by Judie Brown. It is the largest grassroots Catholic pro-life organization in the United States and is committed to the protection of all innocent human beings from the moment of creation to death. For more information or press inquiries, please contact Katie Walker at 540.659.4942.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
- LifeSiteNews: U.K. Pro-Life Leader Calls for Ban on All IVF Procedures (18 June 2010) http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/jun/10061803.html
- Society for the Protection of Unborn Children: http://www.spuc.org.uk/
- Bio News: Assisted reproduction could lead to increased risks of congenital malformations, say scientists (14 June 2010) http://www.bionews.org.uk/page_64300.asp
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