Christian Attitudes To Treatments that Help Couples Who Are Infertile

Roman Catholics are concerned more with the treatment of IVF, because after the treatment is finished, spare embryo’s can be left, and they will either be thrown away or they will be used for experiments. Roman Catholics Believe that life begins at the conception and that using them in this way is a misuse of human or potential human life. They think that this can be seen as taking life; therefore it is against the commandment  ‘Thou shall not kill’. Roman Catholics believe that anybody has the right to have children, they are a gift from god and if you do not have children then that could be because god has other responsibilities for you to achieve throughout your life. The church will allow the use of fertility drugs because they only involve husband and wife, and they are aimed at preserving life, but they forbid all of the rest of the treatments. The reasons for these are as follows, IVF – it will involve the production of extra embryo’s that are not used therefore they are killed so this is abortion, which roman Catholics are totally against. AIH – because the reproduction must be a result of the sex act. AID – because the children must be the product of both of the parents. Surrogacy – because it is against the biblical teachings for a mother to have a baby then give it away.

Whether or not there is a belief in Fertility treatments or not, there are always dangers to these which can effect the parents’ and the baby’s life in many ways. There have been known cases of a child growing up thinking that the parents that they’ve known for all of their lives is not actually their real parent and that their true mother and father are someone else. Many people think that it could have been the same as adultery. AID may not be as satisfactory to both of the partners and therefore it may cause tension between them causing them to split up or loose their relationship. The parents may have to keep a lie for the rest for their lives, or they will have to tell the child when they are older that a third party was involved in the pregnancy.

In Islam, Surrogacy is forbidden as the Qur’an teaches; no one can be a child’s mother, except the woman who carried it. Muslims have no problem with IVF and AIH but they seem to think that AID and adultery have very little difference in them and therefore they forbid this.