Open to Life: What is Wrong with IVF? (II)

If you are new to this series, I recommend starting at the beginning: Open to Life Series: What is Openness to Life?


Because of the multiple problems with in vitro fertilization, I divided the topic into three separate posts. This one discusses the health risks for women and also the potential human error and mix-ups involved in the process. I also want to preface this post with my remarks from the last post:

In Marriage: Love and Life in the Divine Plan, the Bishops remind us that when using technology to “create” human beings, the “[c]hildren begin to be seen less as gifts received in a personal communion of mutual self-giving, and increasingly as a lifestyle choice, a commodity to which all consumers are entitled.”

In vitro fertilization (IVF) in particular is a gravely immoral, dehumanizing, and even a medically risky procedure. “This procedure [IVF] is so far from a loving act of the spouses that it can even be used to conceive a child if neither of them is alive, for the body of neither one is involved in the act of generating this life once sperm and egg are obtained and stored” (Life-Giving Love in an Age of Technology). The medical problems range from the extremely high death rate of embryos to the increased risk of birth defects to human error resulting in the doctor implanting someone else’s child in the woman’s uterus.

Health Risks to Women
The main risk to women’s health through the process of IVF is the use of “superovulatory” drugs to stimulate the ovaries to produce multiple eggs at one time for the procedure. “These drugs have been associated with an increased risk of some cancers, and may lead to a condition known as ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS), whose effects can include reproductive problems, kidney failure and even death” (In Vitro Fertilization: The Human Cost).


Photo from California IVF: Davis Fertility Center

   With multiple pregnancies (a huge risk with IVF), “mothers are more likely to suffer from complications such as high blood pressure, hemorrhages and preeclampsia” (In Vitro Fertilization: The Human Cost). There are also the risks for cesarean deliveries, which are mandatory with multiple pregnancies.

Human Error/“Mix-ups”
There are so many risks related to human error, but some include the wrong sperm being inseminated into the woman, the wrong sperm used to fertilize the egg(s), the wrong embryos being implanted, and embryos (or eggs and sperm) being lost or accidentally discarded.

“[T]he University of California has paid out more than $24 million for 137 separate incidents in which eggs or embryos were either unaccounted for or given to other women without consent.” (“UCI settles a dozen fertility suits,” The Los Angeles Times, September 11, 2009)

“IVF mix-ups are a regular occurrence at fertility clinics across the UK, an expert has said. Dr. Sammy Lee, a scientific consultant at the Portland Hospital in London, said the case of a white woman giving birth to black twins which hit the headlines earlier this month is probably not an isolated incident…. He said: ‘Every day, someone somewhere in the UK is inadvertently messing up… I am aware of the wrong embryos being transferred to the wrong patients at several [National Health Service] units during the past 10 years. I have also confidentially been told about a number of cases where the wrong sperm were used to inseminate eggs.’” (“IVF mix-ups ‘occur regularly’,” BBC News: Health, July 24, 2002.)

“In the case of mixed-up embryos that caused a white Staten Island woman who underwent in vitro fertilization to give birth to two sons of different races, a state inquiry has concluded that the embryologist knew another couple’s embryos had been implanted but failed to tell anyone at the time or to act to correct his error.” (J. Yardley, “Investigators Say Embryologist Knew He Erred in Egg Mix-Up,” The New York Times, April 17, 1999, p. A13.)

“This is a notoriously unregulated area that some of my colleagues have called the Wild West of medicine,” said [Mark] Rothstein, a lawyer and director of the University of Louisville Institute of Bioethics, Health and Law. “I think it [mix-ups] happens and in many cases we don’t know about it.” (J. Christoffersen, “Experts Troubled by Fertility Mix-Up Case,” Associated Press, July 15, 2004.)


Up Next on Monday: ARTs Related to IVF

For full texts of the documents used, see my Open to Life Series: Introduction