And what I wish I had considered before reproductive assistance.
When evangelicals speak of the unborn, they’re often thinking of babies growing inside pregnant moms. Even the pro-life mantra of “from womb to tomb” presupposes a womb to carry them.
So as record numbers of Americans grow their families through in vitro fertilization (IVF), Christians who believe that life begins at conception—even if that’s in a petri dish—face new questions and challenges. In response to expanding reproductive technology, pro-life evangelicals are reexamining the theological and ethical concerns around creating and caring for life at its earliest stages.
I wish I had thought more deeply about this in 2015, when I began IVF in a desperate move to become a mother after several years of infertility. But even as a pro-life Christian, I thought primarily of the lives I would carry, not the ethical ramifications of potential leftover embryos. In fact, I wasn’t even aware one could make so many embryos at once, and the doctors at my IVF clinic didn’t inform me of it.
Other Christians whose beliefs about life did come to bear on their journeys through fertility assistance have experienced the tension firsthand. I talked with Jamie Skipper, who began to consider treatments to help get pregnant around 15 years ago. Her staunch pro-life convictions immediately made things harder.
The Skippers were committed to limiting the number of embryos. If each one created was a new life, they didn’t want any “extras” to sit in a freezer or get destroyed in the process. But IVF is a physically demanding and expensive process, so doctors often recommend fertilizing multiple eggs for a higher chance that one will develop into a healthy baby.
Jamie Skipper said finding …
