IVF and Christianity According to traditional Christian views, beginning at conception, the embryo has moral status as a human being, and thus most assisted reproductive technologies are forbidden.
Most major religions have indeed come to tolerate — and even embrace — IVF, which was originally viewed with equal alarm. But the increasingly commonplace procedure is still condemned at the highest levels of the Catholic Church.
Christian arguments for and against fertility treatments
Against: Fertility treatment is unnatural. Children should be born as part of the intimate relationship between a man and a woman. They may say it is God's will if a couple does not have children.
On the contrary assisted reproduction is totally unacceptable to Roman Catholicism, while Protestants, Anglicans, Coptic Christians and Sunni Muslims accept most of its forms, which do not involve gamete or embryo donation.
Why is the Catholic Church against IVF? Catholic church states that assisted reproduction removes the child's conception through the sexual relationship between the couple.
From the beginning, God blessed procreation. In Genesis 1:28, God said: "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it." Similarly, the psalmist says: "Behold, children are an heritage from the Lord. The fruit of the womb is his reward.
Well, it depends. Some religions object to the fertilization of an egg outside of a woman's body, which obviously rules out in vitro fertilization. Others have a general concern for “the sanctity of embryos” in the IVF treatment.
The Catholic Church believes that IVF is never acceptable because it removes conception from the marital act and because it treats a baby as a product to be manipulated, violating the child's integrity as a human being with an immortal soul from the moment of conception (Donum Vitae 1987).
As I searched the scriptures during this time, I noticed there were many couples who suffered from infertility: Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Rachel, Elkanah and Hannah, and Zachariah and Elisabeth.
A woman's infertility might also be marked by the phrase “she had no progeny” (as in Genesis 11:30, Judges 13:2, 2 Kings 4:14). Often these biblical women suffered deep shame as a consequence, their barrenness attributed to some hidden wrong, sin, or flaw.
In addition, the church opposes in vitro fertilization because it might cause disposal of embryos; Catholics believe an embryo is an individual with a soul who must be treated as a such.
Psalm 139:16 is a clear reference to the embryo (fetus) and ascribes it as a person (“me”). The idea that God gave man the “breath of life” in Genesis 2:7, Job 33:4 and Ezekiel 37:5-6 is an accurate figure of speech which has no reference to when life begins.
James 1:15 tells us, “After desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.” Temptation can lead to sin, but it doesn't have to. It is wise to remember that whenever you are tempted.
Genesis 1:28
Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.”
Religious Views on Surrogacy
Catholicism: While surrogacy is present in the Book of Genesis with the story of Sarah and Abraham, the Catholic Church does not advocate for surrogacy. Instead, the Church teaches that children are a gift from God, only to be conceived and carried naturally by a married husband and wife.
Babies are not born sinners! No person is a sinner until he or she violates God's spiritual law (1 John 3:4). Babies do not have the capability to commit sin. Logic and common-sense dictate that the idea of “original sin” is contrary to the very nature and character of God.
The Bible never explicitly approves of contraception.
Prayer for Conception
You are the God of my fertility. I pray and hold faith in your word. I beg that You plant a seed into my womb Lord. Not just any seed, but a holy and healthy seed of God.
~ Mary's immaculate conception was necessary in order for her to give birth later to Jesus without infecting him with original sin. ~ Partly based on her immaculate conception, Mary is considered the mother of the Roman Catholic church and of all its members.
God wants us to procreate.
Genesis 1:28 reads, "And God blessed them. And God said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth. '" "Be fruitful and multiply."
On a recent "Tamron Hall Show," Eve revealed that her path to this birth has been long and rocky: "We went through our fertility journey, we went through doctors first and just checking things out, and we did do IVF [in vitro fertilization], so we did go through that journey as well," she told Hall.
Summary of Genesis 25:19-26
Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebekah. He prayed for children, and God gave them twins. Rebekah prayed and God said “two nations are in your womb”. Isaac was sixty years old when Rebekah gave birth to Esau and Jacob.
Rachel, like Sarah and Rebekah, remained unable to conceive. According to biblical scholar Tikva Frymer-Kensky, "The infertility of the matriarchs has two effects: it heightens the drama of the birth of the eventual son, marking Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph as special; and it emphasizes that pregnancy is an act of God."