Husbands and wives have a strong, praiseworthy desire to bring children into their family. This desire to share their love with children is a gift from God. The tragedy of infertility causes despair, grief, and marital tension for many couples. Infertility is on the rise in our country and in the world; statistically, 1 in 8 couples will face the inability to conceive a child.

In-Vitro Fertilization (IVF) is a procedure that science has proposed as an answer to this problem. However, IVF brings moral problems, medical risks, dehumanization, and death to many children: far more babies die as a result of IVF than are born alive. In Vitro means “in glass”, and refers to how during IVF, a woman’s egg and a man’s sperm unite in a glass container in a lab, and a new life is conceived. Couples will often conceive more than 20 children from just one cycle! Multiple embryos will be implanted in the mother’s body, since most will die; in cases where multiple embryos do survive, “selective reduction,” (i.e. abortion), will often be performed to leave only one or two babies. Embryos with genetic defects, undesirable traits, or who are not the preferred sex, may be destroyed or frozen. Half of the babies that were frozen will die during the thawing process. Many embryos stay in liquid nitrogen for years, their lives suspended or perhaps ended in a metal chamber. In the U.S. alone, there are over 1 million frozen embryos. This state of being is not in keeping with the dignity of the human person, and it is not what parents have in mind when they dream of starting a family.

Though it is usually pursued with a good intention, IVF results in the dehumanization and death of most children who are conceived using this process. Because the IVF industry does not advertise much of this information, not everyone who chooses IVF does so with full knowledge of what it involves, and why it is wrong. And of course, God loves people conceived via IVF just as much as He loves all other persons.

In this lesson, students will:

• Examine their assumptions about parental responsibilities and the right to life.
• Discuss the moral problems with IVF in a game format.
• Participate in a question and answer session with their teacher and a priest (if possible).
• Examine sacred art for what it tells us about Christ’s triumph over sin and death.