Much has been written and discussed about the regularisation of In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) within Artificial Reproductive Treatment (ART) over the years. It has now been announced that Parliament will be discussing a draft law on IVF in the next two months.
Gift of Life representatives attended the meetings of the Parliamentary Select Committee when this subject was being discussed. We heard at least two MPs suggest that when generating embryos through IVF, at least one extra embryo should be formed so as to ensure having the required number of embryos (for example, two) in the eventuality of one of them dying in the process leading to implantation.
The ‘extra’ embryos are frozen – with inevitable stockpiling of unused embryos. The embryos that are considered of ‘lesser quality’ are automatically selected for the freezer.
Were this suggestion to be taken up, then more importance would be given to achieving a pregnancy than to the actual human being. The risk is that the embryo then becomes a commodity, and therefore up for commercial use and subject to such market laws as profit and efficiency or wastage. Once the idea of human life as a commodity is accepted by society, the acceptance of the legalisation of abortion follows.
The proponents of embryo freezing have suggested that any surplus frozen embryos, rather than be destroyed, can then be offered up for ‘adoption’. This, of course, is unlikely to happen, given that the frozen embryos would be the ‘lesser quality’ ones other parents have ‘rejected’.
This ‘adoption’ scheme would be surrogacy under a different name. The natural parents of the embryo would be totally out of the picture and lose all responsiblilty towards their offspring.
Various Select Committees have rejected the idea of surrogacy and of gamete donation. Referring to the passing on of embryos to others under the term ‘adoption’ does not change the obvious fact that it is surrogacy.
Apart from the above, one cannot ignore the fact that during the thawing process prior to implantation, up to 35 per cent of these embryos inevitably die. (Source: Comitato Nazionale per la Bioetica – Destino degli embrioni derivanti da procreazione medicalmente assistita a non piu impiantabili, October 26, 2007).
Embryo freezing is clearly an affront to the rights and dignity of all people and cannot be acceptable to pro-life MPs.