What are christians views on IVF?

Answer 1

No doubt there will be a very small minority of fundamentalists who give rather judgemental answers to this question where they accuse would-be parents with 'dabbling with nature' and the like. In my experience, such people often have families without the need of further help, and rarely have any real knowledge of the heartache of couples who want the gift of a child and for whom IVF is a natural means to fulfil that desire and to give a child a right to live, and to be loved.

For the vast majority of Christians, they see God at work not only in natural conception and childbirth , but also in the skills and expertise of the medical profession to help that conception. They see normal medicine as an aid in helping the body heal itself and therefore fertility treatment is seen as just another extension of this - in aiding the body to reproduce.

Therefore, almost all Christians would regard IVF as a God-given skill of the medical profession, revealed to us by research just as other breakthroughs have been - like chemotherapy, X-rays and penicillin. Used in the right way - to provide life for a child for a couple who are desperate to be parents - IVF is a blessing.

However, one should never confuse IVF with other practices such as embryonic research, or 'babies-to-order' or genetic treatment to ensure a child is of the right hair colour, intelligence or gender - or compatible with another sibling so that he/she can act as a donor later in life if a transplant may be needed. Such areas are minefields where the ethics are far less clear-cut.