Isn’t amazing how often a person will say, “The issue is settled” when all they really mean is that they don’t want to talk or debate about it anymore? This is the case with the recent debate over in vitro fertilization in the United States. A few months ago, the Alabama State Supreme Court ruled that because embryos were human beings then in vitro fertilization as it is currently practiced could not be allowed in the state. This caused an expected brouhaha with various politicians and social influencers decrying the backwardness of Alabama and all those “pro-life crazies”. It has become one more lightning rod for the pro-abortion political left.

Yet there is an inherent logic behind the State Supreme Court ruling. In in vitro fertilization procedures, it is usually the case that several ova are removed after artificially inducing cycles in the woman and then several of them fertilized and usually several are frozen. In almost all jurisdictions frozen embryos may only remain in this suspended state for a period of time and after several years must be destroyed or used for “scientific research”.

It should be obvious that this is a serious assault on the dignity of the child. In number 49 of Dignitatis Infinita, the document on current assaults on human dignity released a few months ago by the Vatican, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith specifically speaks of this as an assault on the life of a unique child.

There is a severalfold threat here. The first is the commodification of the child. In the same way that Dignitatis Infinita condemns the slavery of men and women and the sexual objectification of human beings, embryos can also be used as a means to an end.

Though it is laudatory to want a child, not all means of achieving that goal are equally valid. As the document lays out, each child is entitled to a natural conception by his/her parents and needs protection. To be conceived artificially and subject to the whims of parents as to one’s gestation is not to be respected as a full human being.

The almost casual freezing of embryos for further use depending on the success of previous tries at conception says a great deal as to how we value such being. As well, embryos are sold for medical experimentation and surrogacy. It has long been a mantra that “surplus” embryos are too valuable a resource to be “wasted” and should be freed up and donated for “valuable” medical research. Such “value” is never to be questioned so long as a spurious claim is advanced by people claiming a scientific mantle. When an in vitro clinic said that it would move out of state in Alabama after the recent court decision, this was greeted with an alarm by pro-abortionists. When JD Vance, Trump’s vice-presidential running mate, had earlier voiced support for recognizing embryos as human persons, this too is being taken up as a cudgel to beat him.

We need to be very clear as to the reality of our debate. In the Church, we rarely hear anything about artificially assisted reproduction because preachers and catechist may feel incapable of lucidly explaining the Church’s teaching, are anxious about offending members of the congregation who have undergone such procedures to have a child or are worried about the backlash.

But Dignitatis Infinita calls us once again to speak up for the voiceless. I rarely quote Dr. Seuss, but “a person’s a person no matter how small”. As is true of so many pro-life questions, regardless of the debate trying to shut down in our civil discourse by pro-death forces, we need to teach, inform, and correct (if necessary) our own people and also to advance the cause of Truth.

Fr. Tom Lynch (PFLC National President)