Diocese prepares resources following IVF executive order

By Tanya Connor
The Catholic Free Press

Following President Donald Trump’s Feb. 18 executive order that aims to expand access to in vitro fertilization and reduce out-of-pocket and health plan costs for it, the diocesan Respect Life Office provided resources for clergy to share with their parishioners regarding the Church’s teaching on IVF and how to pastorally respond to those suffering with infertility.  

With the topic of IVF being in the news recently, “it is important and helpful to re-visit Catholic teaching on reproductive technologies and equip ourselves to offer pastoral support to couples suffering the heartache of infertility,” said Allison LeDoux, director of the diocesan Respect Life and Marriage and Family offices. She said many Catholics are unaware of moral problems associated with IVF and of ethical alternatives.

Early this month, the Respect Life Office collected resources that were emailed to diocesan priests and deacons, including a pastoral letter from Bishop Michael Burbidge, past chairman of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops committee on Pro-Life Activities, titled “The Christian Family, In Vitro Fertilization, and Heroic Witness to True Love”; an overview specifically for priests and deacons to address conversations on IVF with their parishioners; a video series by Father Tad Pacholczyk of The National Catholic Bioethics Center titled, “Seeking the Moral Path,” which gives a clear explanation about issues associated with IVF through a moral and pastoral lens; a document that addresses common questions about IVF that can be duplicated and shared; and a “parish leader kit” from the USCCB.

While IVF is morally problematic, the science of restorative reproductive medicine is ethical, Mrs. LeDoux said, since it enables couples to conceive children naturally. It is a disease-based approach which is successful because it comprehensively diagnoses, evaluates and effectively treats multiple causes of infertility.  

“That’s what people want,” she said. “They want to be restored to health.”

She said treatment using restorative reproductive medicine also costs significantly less than IVF.

A White House fact sheet stated that “The cost [of IVF] can range from $12,000 to $25,000 per cycle and multiple cycles may be needed to get pregnant .... IVF is often not fully covered by health insurance.”

Addressing these sensitive topics can be difficult, since “every child is a gift … regardless of how he or she is conceived,” she told the clergy, but “it is important that we approach these issues honestly and faithfully.”  

Speaking to The Catholic Free Press about the resource, “A Catholic Primer on In Vitro Fertilization,” Mrs. LeDoux said, “We recommend that this be accessible to parishioners.” It can be reproduced and inserted into parish bulletins.  

The Catholic Church opposes IVF for several reasons. This technology unites a woman’s eggs and a man’s sperm outside of their bodies, in a laboratory. One or more of the resulting embryos is implanted in a woman’s uterus, whether or not she is the egg donor, and any remaining embryos are destroyed or frozen indefinitely.

Donum vitae, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith’s Instruction on Respect for Human Life in its Origin and on the Dignity of Procreation states, “The law … must expressly forbid that human beings, even at the embryonic stage, should be treated as objects of experimentation, be mutilated, or destroyed, with the excuse that they are superfluous or incapable of developing normally.”

Countless parents have agonized over what to do with their frozen embryonic children, Mrs. LeDoux said, explaining that the embryos will be killed if donated to research. Some parents divorce and sue each other for the right to the embryos, she said. Other parents have had a child that is not their own, when the largely unregulated fertility clinics make mistakes. And children, donors and surrogate mothers are treated like commodities that can be bought, sold and discarded, she noted.

A major objection to IVF is “you’re introducing a third-party technician into the marital act,” in violation of the unitive and procreative dimensions of marriage, Mrs. LeDoux said.

– Those wanting more information can contact the diocesan Respect Life office at 508-929-4311 or by emailing [email protected].