Madam, – Fr Sylvester Mary Mann (October 14th), in supporting the church’s condemnation of IVF, contrasts procreation by “the unnatural use of technology” with fertilisation by “natural” intercourse. He implies that couples with infertility problems should not resort to IVF. If Fr Sylvester faced a serious illness whose treatment required the use of “unnatural medical technology”, would he feel he should refuse this treatment and allow nature to take its course?
Fr Sylvester also cites the fact that the IVF process accepts the loss of many of the embryos produced. We know that in nature in at least 50 per cent of cases embryos which reach implantation do not survive, and, literally, only God knows the number of fertilised eggs which never successfully implant. In all of nature the process of reproduction is very wasteful.
While I would certainly accept that IVF presents many ethical problems and is open to misuse, is it possible to look at the many millions of human beings who are now in existence because of this advance and say that they should not have been born? – Yours, etc