Natural Family Planning International

John was asked by an acquaintance:  “How do you feel about the interference of medical doctors and others in the birth process and in providing prenatal care? Two of our grandkids were conceived via in vitro fertilization.”

John’s response:  Thanks for asking. My “feeling” is great sympathy for married couples who have an infertility problem.  “Feeling” has an immediate emotional response.  “Thinking” is different.  My thinking about in vitro fertilization is based on the facts available to me.

“Interference” is a somewhat generic word; “birth process” can mean different things; to me it means the actual process of giving birth.  “Pre-natal care” means the care that ought to be given to support both the baby and the mother from the time of conception to birth.

In the typical in vitro fertilization process, the woman is stimulated to produce multiple ova which are then mixed with the man’s semen obtained via masturbation.  Several embryos will be created in this way.  One or two are implanted in the uterus for further development.  The others are either discarded or frozen for possible later use.  Human embryos are human persons at the first stage of development.  They are not just biological material.  They have the right to life until natural death, and it is the duty of parents and others to provide loving care for them.  Discarding or freezing them is not loving care for them.  So I think that it is morally wrong to seek pregnancy through in vitro fertilization.

For fifty years we have been providing practical positive help for couples of both normal fertility and marginal fertility.  We persuaded a mother with a sound scientific background to write a book titled Fertility, Cycles and Nutrition which has been very helpful for many women with all sorts of menstrual irregularities including marginal infertility.  I define marginal infertility as infertility that is capable of being overcome in natural, moral ways.  A woman with no ovaries would be, quite obviously, a woman with infertility that cannot be overcome in natural ways.  The fact that spouses have medical backgrounds is no guarantee at all that they have adequate knowledge about their mutual fertility.  It is truly amazing how many doctors are ignorant about natural family planning with fertility awareness, and they are generally even more ignorant about the style of breastfeeding that actually does delay the return of fertility for 14 to 15 months, on the average.

I wish that your relatives had made use of what we have to offer.  We can also refer to doctors who specialize in treating infertility in ways, including surgery, that are compatible with Catholic teaching and the natural law.

I would not be surprised if my mention of Catholic teaching on these matter brings out a certain spirit of skepticism.  My faith that the Catholic Church is guided in these teachings by the Holy Spirit is based on my prior belief that Jesus keeps his promises.  At the Last Supper, he promised three times that He would send the Holy Spirit to guide the Church in its teaching.  You can find the quotes in the Seven Day Bible Rosary booklet.  See the Mysteries of the Last Supper.  I believe that Jesus is truly risen from the dead and will come again to judge the living and the dead, and I live by that and I am willing to die for that belief.  I think it is a reasoned faith based upon the historical fact of His resurrection.  As St. Paul put it plainly, “If Christ is not risen from the dead, your faith is in vain and you are still in your sins” (1 Cor 15:17).

On the other hand, I am convinced that it is an act of mere opinion or misplaced faith to “believe” that the human life in the zygote is only an animal cell that can be killed or mistreated— a reversion to the old pagan days of the father-dictator.  To state or think that the zygote and then embryo and then fetus achieves the right to be respected as a human person at some particular stage of development is to make an act of faith either in one’s opinion or the opinion of some erring philosopher.  The stage-names in the previous sentence are merely human inventions to describe a human being at different stages in development; but he or she is the same person from conception onward.

The message of Lent is to have a change of heart and to accept the Lord Jesus as the King and Center of our lives, and to live accordingly in preparation for our personal meeting with Him upon death.

A blessed Lent to you and your family.

John K.