Not doing [IVF] for the kids

A couple in Ohio were recently told that the child they were carrying was not theirs.  The IVF clinic screwed up and implanted the embryo of another couple.  From the UK Mail Online:

A pregnant mother will have to give birth to another couple's baby after a blunder by an IVF clinic.

Carolyn Savage had the wrong embryos implanted into her and will have to give the boy up to his biological parents as soon as he is born.

Yesterday Mrs Savage, 40, who was expecting her fourth child with husband Sean, said: 'The hardest part is going to be the delivery. I remember communicating with the [unnamed] mother of this child as to what I was envisioning and hoping for.

'I said, "We want a moment to say hello, and goodbye".

'In the beginning we were really scared of that moment and it is still scary. We are trying to mentally frame it in a positive way and look at it as a gift for this family that eight months ago we didn't know.

'I think that is the only way we'll get through it.'

The Savages decided not to abort the child.  Unlike another recent case where a woman aborted another couple's last IVF embryo after she found out about the mistake. 

What a heart breaking situation that should never have come to pass.  This not only will devastate Carolyn and Sean Savage but also their three other children who will have to witness their mother come home from the hospital without what they believed was their sibling.  My prayers are with the Savages and the other couple who are blessed that Carolyn Savage did not choose to abort because of her religious beliefs.

What I find so infuriating are the comments on this story.  Anyone who points out that IVF is unnatural is an insensitive hate monger.  Many comments suggest that infertility is no different than having cancer and if we treat cancer then we should treat infertility.  But treating cancer does not require creating human beings in a dish, then freezing and thawing them, or worse throwing them in the trash or donating them to research. 

Of course we should treat infertility, but to a point.  Treatment of infertility that treats the underlying cause and allows natural conception to take place is good.  But producing human beings in a laboratory to be treated like a commodity is not  simply treating infertility.  It is manufacturing human beings as a means to an end.

Which brings me to the end: children at any cost.  I read "Not Doing it for the Kids" by atheist philosopher Julian Baggini and felt it spoke directly to this social phenomenon that we must have biologically related children anyway possible.  Baggini is speaking of choosing not to have children but his words speak directly to desperate infertile couples:

The child-free life can be great. Why is it almost always presented as second-best, cold and empty?

The goods of the childless life reflect something very important about the good life for everyone. Humans have the capacity to rise above the biological imperative to reproduce. That we do not place the highest value on passing on our genes is part of what makes us different and, yes, in some sense superior to our fellow animals. Yet society does not celebrate our freedom to do this. Reproducing is still seen as the healthy norm, "failing" to do as an aberration. If many more of us do not have grandchildren, then perhaps we will make it clearer that sexual reproduction may be the meaning of animal life, but it sure ain't the best or only reason for humans to get up in the morning: refreshed, after a night uninterrupted by the cries of little angels.

I know this sounds insensitive.  Call me insensitive if you want.  I can take it.  Because I believe what is more insensitive is wanting a biologically related child so badly that you are willing to have a technician make many more than you will ever need in a petri dish and leaving some of them to an uncertain fate in the deep freeze or in the hands of a stem cell researcher or even in the womb of some other woman.

Hat Tips: Epiphenom and Reflections of a Paralytic