Why Does the Church Oppose IVF?

A Painful Subject

Infertility is one of the most painful experiences a couple can face. The longing for a child is natural and good, and the grief of being unable to conceive can be overwhelming. For many couples, in vitro fertilisation (IVF) seems to offer hope, and many families have welcomed children conceived this way.

So it can be hard to hear that the Catholic Church teaches that IVF is morally wrong. To many people, it sounds like the Church is against children, or indifferent to the suffering of infertile couples.

Neither is true. The Church’s teaching comes from deep respect for children, for marriage and for every human life. It is worth understanding the reasons, even for those who disagree.

What IVF Involves

In IVF, eggs are taken from the woman after hormone stimulation and fertilised with sperm in a laboratory. The resulting embryos are grown for a few days, and one or more are transferred to the woman’s womb. Typically, more embryos are created than are transferred at once. The others may be frozen for later use, donated, used in research, or discarded.

The Church’s Reasons

The Church set out her teaching in two documents from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith: Donum Vitae (1987) and Dignitas Personae (2008). Her reasons fall into three main areas.

1. The fate of the embryos

The most serious concern is the loss of human life.

The Church teaches that a human embryo is a human being from the moment of conception, with the dignity of a person (CCC 2270, 2274). (See What Does the Catholic Church Teach About Abortion and the Value of Human Life?)

In the normal practice of IVF, many embryos are created and do not survive. Some are lost because they do not implant, as also happens in natural conception. But many are deliberately set aside: tested and discarded if they appear to have defects, frozen indefinitely, or destroyed when no longer wanted. Very large numbers of embryos remain frozen in clinics around the world, many of them effectively abandoned.

Dignitas Personae notes that the number of embryos sacrificed in IVF is extremely high, even in the best clinics. For the Church, each of these is a human life.

2. Separating conception from the marital act

The Church teaches that a child should be conceived as the fruit of the loving union of husband and wife in the marital act. In IVF, conception takes place in a laboratory, through a technical procedure carried out by others.

This is the same principle behind the Church’s teaching on contraception, from the other direction. Contraception seeks sexual union while excluding procreation; IVF seeks procreation without sexual union. In both cases, the Church says, two meanings that God has joined together are being separated (CCC 2377). (See What Does the Church Teach About Contraception and Natural Family Planning?)

This does not mean the Church thinks children conceived by IVF are less loved or less valuable. It means she believes that the way a new human life begins matters, and that a child should be “begotten, not made,” received as a gift from an act of love rather than produced through a technical process.

3. A child is a gift, not a right

The Church teaches that “a child is not something owed to one, but is a gift” (CCC 2378). There is no “right to a child,” because a child is a person, not a possession or a product. This is a hard truth for those longing for children, but it protects children from being treated as objects, selected, screened or discarded according to the wishes of adults.

The Church also objects to the use of donor eggs or sperm from outside the marriage, which separates biological parenthood from the couple raising the child (CCC 2376).

What the Church Supports

The Church is not against medical help for infertility. On the contrary, she encourages research and treatment that helps the marital act achieve conception, rather than replacing it (CCC 2375).

Restorative reproductive medicine seeks to diagnose and treat the underlying causes of infertility: hormonal problems, endometriosis, blocked tubes, low sperm count and other conditions. Approaches such as NaProTechnology and other fertility-awareness-based medicine use careful charting of the woman’s cycle to identify and treat problems. These approaches can help many couples conceive naturally.

Other options that the Church holds up for couples who cannot conceive include adoption and fostering, and other ways of giving life and love to others. The Catechism says that couples who discover they are sterile “can give expression to their generosity by adopting abandoned children or performing demanding services for others” (CCC 2379).

Every Child Is Loved

It is very important to say this clearly: every child conceived by IVF is a human being of infinite worth, loved by God, and to be welcomed and cherished like any other child. The Church’s teaching concerns the method, never the dignity of the child. Many Catholic families include children conceived by IVF, and they are loved members of the Church.

Couples who have used IVF, perhaps without knowing the Church’s teaching, are not condemned. If they come to see it as wrong, God’s mercy is always available in Confession. Their children are a blessing.

Compassion and Truth

Infertile couples deserve deep compassion and practical support from the Church, not just rules. Parishes can do much more to accompany couples through the grief of infertility, and to support access to good restorative fertility care.

The Church’s teaching on IVF is difficult, and many people, including many Catholics, find it hard to accept. But it springs from a consistent vision: every human life is sacred from its first moment, children are gifts and not products, and the love of husband and wife is the right place for new life to begin.