success rate<\/a>\u00a0of almost 50% in cases where the woman is younger than 35.<\/p>\nGiven that the Bible\u2014Old and New Testaments\u2014were written over many centuries ending around the second century C.E., and given, too, that the first successful IVF baby wasn\u2019t born until 1978, nearly two millennia later, it is unlikely that one will find any specific mention of IVF in Scripture. Consequently, the subject has elicited opinions on both sides and the middle.<\/p>\n
The Episcopal Church has endorsed the practice since 1982, as did the United Church of Christ seven years later. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has no official position. Nor do the Southern Baptists (but some have called for an official resolution on the matter at its convention later this year). And the Catholic Church hierarchy opposes it.<\/p>\n
Those are the official positions. Individual positions vary. Pew Research found that 55 percent of white Catholics answered yes to the question, \u201cHave you used fertility treatments to have children or know anyone who has?\u201d White mainline Protestants were a close second at 48 percent, and white evangelicals third at 44%.<\/p>\n
But when considering that non-white respondents fell into much lower percentages (Hispanic Catholics at 29 percent and Black Protestants at 26 percent), it becomes evident that\u2014at IVF\u2019s price range of $15,000 to $20,000\u2014the driver of the survey figures is not faith but finances.<\/p>\n
But IVF is one thing. Frozen embryos are another. Religion News Service reports that \u201cEven among religious groups that seek to ban abortion, many do not agree that the destruction of frozen embryos is the same as taking a life.\u201d<\/p>\n
The United Methodist Church has wrestled with the subject, taking the position that, while \u201creluctant to approve abortion,\u201d and declaring that people \u201cshould not create embryos with the sole intention of destroying them,\u201d still, \u201cobtaining and fertilizing multiple ova may be justified\u201d [i.e., IVF] even if some embryos perish, the reason being that the practice helps \u201cavoid the necessity of multiple attempts to obtain ova.\u201d<\/p>\n
Not surprisingly, the outrage exploding from the Alabama decision comes from religious advocates of abortion rights. It\u2019s a disputed theological claim, they say, about when life begins. On that point, according to Pew Research, most Christians (54 percent), Buddhists (78 percent), Hindus (69 percent) and Muslims (66 percent) agree\u2014abortion should be legal in all or most cases. Some rabbis and Jewish organizations have filed lawsuits against abortion bans, claiming that those bans violate Jewish tradition and, therefore, are religious freedom abuses.<\/p>\n
With the percentages in favor of abortion, it takes no logical stretch to conclude how these groups feel about lost frozen embryos.<\/p>\n
To the Rev. Katey Zeh, who heads the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, what is involved is the sin of pride. \u201cThere\u2019s a huge spectrum of theological opinion about when life begins or when personhood begins,\u201d she says. \u201cThere\u2019s no consensus here, so there\u2019s a lot of hubris in claiming \u2014 especially in the legal standing \u2014 that this is the theological viewpoint of an entire religious tradition. That\u2019s certainly not true.\u201d<\/p>\n
To Zeh, moreover, a moral line has been crossed by the Alabama ruling, which almost at once stopped all IVF procedures in the state and thus denied a lifeline to parenthood to potential Moms and Dads.<\/p>\n
It just feels so similar to rulings about abortion \u2014 the lack of regard to the people whose lives are actually impacted,\u201d she said. \u201cAs a person of faith, that\u2019s what feels so immoral to me.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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