The U.S. Bishops this week responded to the Trump Administration’s announcement of new actions to expand access to in vitro fertilization (IVF) and fertility treatments. “[W]e strongly reject the promotion of procedures like IVF that…freeze or destroy precious human beings and treat them like property,” said Bishop Robert E. Barron, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth; Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades, chairman of the Committee for Religious Liberty; and, Bishop Daniel E. Thomas, chairman of the Committee on Pro-Life Activities.
“Every human life, born and preborn, is sacred and loved by God,” they continued. “Without diminishing the dignity of people born through IVF, we must recognize that children have a right to be born of a natural and exclusive act of married love, rather than a business’s technological intervention. And harmful government action to expand access to IVF must not also push people of faith to be complicit in its evils.”
The full statement, along with more information on assisted reproductive technology, can be found here.