IVF (In Vitro Fertilization), Surrogacy, and (ART) Assisted Reproduction Technology María Lucía Bersia Lic. Mariana Mussetta English Language II August 27 th,

ARGUMENTS FOR Due to the fact that the field of medicine offers new possibilities for conception, many infertile couples are trying techniques in advanced technology, and are given the possibility to have children. Same-sex couples, single individuals, and unmarried couples who can afford the treatments, or pay for surrogate mothers, can have children. Embryos can be used for experimentation, which may provide a better understanding of hereditary diseases. Embryos can be frozen and preserved for future use. 2

ARGUMENTS FOR Although menopause is a natural barrier to further conception, IVF has allowed women to be pregnant in their fifties and sixties. Quantitative and qualitative studies of surrogates over the past twenty years, mostly from a psychological or social work perspective, have confirmed that the majority of surrogates are satisfied with their surrogacy experience, do not experience "bonding" with the child they birth, and feel positively about surrogacy even a decade after the birth. Thanks to technology, we can now lead a better and more comfortable life, being able to fulfill most of our dreams and expectations, even those which would have been unthinkable some years ago. 3

ARGUMENTS AGAINST This processes may turn out to be complicated, painful, and really expensive. The laws are incapable of dealing with many of the new dilemmas posed by this new technology, and rules for the handling of frozen embryos should be established. The donation of eggs, sperms, or embryos are sometimes seen as the selling of children. The use of embryos for experimentation is shocking, cruel and unacceptable. 4

ARGUMENTS AGAINST Life begins before conception: it is in the egg and sperm—which are potentially human– before fertilization. Life exists, in fact, in every genetically coded egg and sperm, most of which are never fertilized at all. It is a crime to destroy frozen embryos as they are already human beings. Some studies in the USA have suggested that assisted reproductive technology is associated with an increased risk of birth defects. Far from solving problems, technology keeps creating them. It allows children to be conceived outside a woman’s body, but it doesn’t prevent hunger, poverty, or broken families to be part of everyday life. 5

Catechism of the Catholic Church ( page 558) Investigations over infertility should be fostered, as long as they do not interfere with God’s teachings and will. The Catholic Church opposes all kinds of in vitro fertilization because, as with contraception, it separates the procreative purpose of the marriage act from its unitive purpose. This particular doctrine, often expounded by the magisterium of the Church, is based on the inseparable connection, established by God, which man on his own initiative may not break, between the unitive significance and the procreative significance which are both inherent to the marriage act. 6

The reason is that the fundamental nature of the marriage act, while uniting husband and wife in the closest intimacy, also renders them capable of generating new life—and this as a result of laws written into the actual nature of man and of woman. And if each of these essential qualities, the unitive and the procreative, is preserved, the use of marriage fully retains its sense of true mutual love and its ordination to the supreme responsibility of parenthood to which man is called. 7 Catechism of the Catholic Church (page 558)

Techniques involving only the married couple (homologous artificial insemination and fertilization) are perhaps less reprehensible, yet remain morally unacceptable. They dissociate the sexual act from the procreative act. The act which brings the child into existence is no longer an act by which two persons give themselves to one another, but one that "entrusts the life and identity of the embryo into the power of doctors and biologists and establishes the domination of technology over the origin and destiny of the human person. Such a relationship of domination is in itself contrary to the dignity and equality that must be common to parents and children. 8 Catechism of the Catholic Church (page 558)

9 The Catholic Church maintains that it is not objectively evil to be infertile, and advocates adoption as an option for such couples who still wish to have children. The Gospel shows that physical sterility is not an absolute evil. Spouses who still suffer from infertility after exhausting legitimate medical procedures should unite themselves with the Lord's Cross, the source of all spiritual fecundity. They can give expression to their generosity by adopting abandoned children or performing demanding services for others. Catechism of the Catholic Church (page 558)

EXAMPLES IN ARGENTINA:  MATIAS Y SILVINA had to give their embryos to pay the debt at the fertility clinic.  GLORIA Y ALBERTO decided to donate them, and give the chance to have children to another family.  TAMAR Y SIMON decided to have another child after ten years, using a ten-year-old frozen embryo.  CLAUDIA Y MIGUEL ANGEL decided to take the embryos home. 10

EXAMPLES IN THE USA:  MR AND MRS DAVIS got divorced, and a heated debate over the frozen embryos started because she wanted to try to have a child, and he didn’t want her to be his children’s mother anymore. IN AUSTRALIA:  Multi-millionaires ELSA AND MARIO RIOS died in a plane crash before their embryos could be implanted., and another debate was raised over the embryos ‘ rights. 11

The Handmaid’s Tale By Margaret Atwood Novel written by a Canadian writer in the mid-1980s. Dystopian novel. Clear example of what totalitarian governments can do if given power and approval by certain members of society. ONCE INFERTILITY HAS INVADED SOCIETY, THE ONLY POSSIBLE SOLUTION SEEMS TO BE MAKING USE OF “HANDMAIDS”, BUT... WHO ARE THEY? 12

WORKS CITED AND CONSULTED Clarín.Com. Sunday 29 th, June Numrich, Carol. “Raise the Issues.” Cathecism of the Catholic Church 13