CV NEWS FEED // Stephanie Gray Connors’ book, Conceived by Science: Thinking Carefully and Compassionately about Infertility and IVF, which was originally self-published in 2022, is set to be released as a new edition March 17 as part of Word on Fire’s Dignity Series.
In a Feb. 26 email interview with CatholicVote, Connors discussed her updated book, On IVF, which explores a variety of moral issues connected to in vitro fertilization (IVF) and includes an appendix that offers a way forward for Catholics who have already conceived via IVF.
Learn more about Connors’ personal experience with infertility and her careful thinking about IVF as she encourages others to inform their consciences on the procedure and the industry surrounding it.
CatholicVote: Your book, On IVF, invites readers to think carefully and compassionately about infertility and IVF. What inspired you to write this book?
Connors: After almost two decades of traveling the world speaking on abortion, I was increasingly being asked about IVF. My audience members were making a connection when hearing me make the scientific case that life begins at fertilization and that embryos of human parents are human beings too. More and more people were asking me about my views on IVF. In answering, I saw a need to respond sensitively, in a way that acknowledged the dignity of those created by IVF as well as the suffering of those who faced infertility. At the same time, I saw a huge need for proper formation to be provided, as all too often people were thinking the “end” (the good of children) could justify the “means” (manufacturing persons in a lab) and I wanted to develop a pro-life apologetic to help people see IVF is profoundly morally problematic.
CV: Many people see IVF as a solution to the deep pain of infertility. How can the Church respond compassionately to couples who struggle to conceive while upholding moral principles?
Connors: The Church already has responded compassionately by encouraging and promoting the work of Restorative Reproductive Medicine, which has ethically helped many couples achieve pregnancy, even couples who had failed IVF rounds, as well as teaching about men and women living out fatherhood and motherhood spiritually and how that can lead to human flourishing too. Certainly the more priests preach about this and the more parishes advertise information about it, the better.
CV: One of the biggest ethical concerns with IVF is the fate of embryos that are discarded, frozen indefinitely, or subjected to experimentation. How should we, as a society, reckon with the reality that many human lives are lost in the process of IVF?
Connors: We need to remind people that the end does not justify the means. In other words, the “end” of having a child does not justify, for example, the unethical means of kidnapping a child. Similarly, IVF is an unethical means because it involves jeopardizing or ending the lives of some humans as well as contracting out to a third party, separate from one’s marriage, the manufacture of a human person who, as a subject, should not come into being the way an object does.
CV: Some proponents argue that IVF is simply another form of medical intervention, like a surgery to correct a physical ailment. What makes reproductive technologies fundamentally different from other medical treatments?
Connors: There are various medical interventions that are morally acceptable that use technology. The problem with IVF is that it goes against God’s designs for how humans were meant to come into existence: It manufactures someone who is not an object. In doing so, it intentionally makes and places some humans in an environment that is unsafe and could lead to their harm or death, all in an effort to make other humans. It is worth considering that there is a difference between parts and wholes. For example, if your heart isn’t working optimally, by using a pacemaker you are restoring the body part to its proper function. The same could be said for our reproductive organs that are not working properly — it is acceptable to use technology to, for example, unblock fallopian tubes so that eggs, sperm, and embryos can pass through as designed. But IVF is different. It is not about restoring a body part to its proper function. It is about manufacturing into existence a whole person (and harming some persons in the process). In other words, someone opposed to IVF is not against progress or technology but is instead against exploitation and the twisting of the natural design of our relationships. There is a difference between preserving how a body part was meant to function and producing another human being entirely.
CV: Adoption and NaProTechnology are often mentioned as ethical alternatives to IVF. What do you see as the best ways to support couples facing infertility in a way that aligns with human dignity?
Connors: We absolutely need to encourage NaPro/Restorative Reproductive Medicine (RRM), which is why I include a whole chapter on this in my book. The more the Church advertises pro-life medical clinics that practice according to Church teaching, the more people will be aware of alternatives to IVF. I myself have benefited from RRM via progesterone treatment during pregnancy that I credit with keeping two of my daughters alive. I have lost four other babies to miscarriage.
CV: President Trump just signed an executive order expanding access to IVF and reducing its costs. The White House presents this as a pro-family initiative. How do you respond to that framing?
Connors: This is a terrible executive order that is an attack on the youngest of our kind. It is not a pro-family initiative when we consider this question: How many family members not yet born will have their lives jeopardized or destroyed so that other family members can come to birth?
CV: Do you see a contradiction in political leaders who otherwise advocate for life and family values but also promote IVF, which often involves the destruction of embryos?
Connors: It is absolutely contradictory to advocate for the value of all human beings while at the same time to support a technology that involves intentionally jeopardizing and killing some humans in order to bring to birth other humans.
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