Christians, Roman Catholics, Evangelical Christians and protestant people all have different views towards infertility treatment.

        Many solutions have been provided by medical technology, which is known as embryo technology.

The first embryo technology is In-vitro Fertilization (IVF). This is when an egg from a woman is fertilized outside the womb using the husbands or the donor’s sperm. The egg is then replaced back inside the womb to grow. Another is, Artificial Insemination by husband (AIH) .This is when the husband’s sperm is inserted into his wife by surgical means. Thirdly there is, Artificial Insemination by Donor (AID).When an anonymous man donates sperm, which is inserted into the mother/women. There is also, Egg Donation. This is when an egg is donated by other women and fertilized by IVF using the husband’s sperm and it is then placed into the wife’s womb. Embryo Donation is quite another popular one. This is when an egg from the woman and the sperm from a man which come from different donors, are fertilized using In-vitro Fertilization (IVF). The last one is Surrogacy. This is either when an egg and sperm of the wife and husband is fertilized by IVF and then placed into another woman’s womb. It could also be when the husband sperm artificially inseminates another woman. In both of these cases, after the birth of the child the woman hands the baby to the husband and wife.

All of this new technology is fantastic to have in Great Britain but some of it cost a lot, but we are very lucky to even have the advanced technology to provide these methods.    

Couples are now in the UK using all of the embryo technology. The Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority supervise this. Quite a few people have been in debate about the morality of the Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority.

     For religion reasons this is a problem as many of the opponents of fertility treatments have accused doctors of playing god. However, other people have classed fertility treatment as a miracle.

What is IVF?

IVF was developed in the 1970s. The first British test tube baby was Louise Brown, who was born in 1977. Some 30,000 test tube babies have been born in the UK since then. There are several different techniques, but the main process involves the women taking fertility drugs to help her produce more eggs. The eggs are then harvested and fertilised in the laboratory. The woman is given hormone drugs to prepare her womb to receive the fertilised eggs. The fertilised eggs are placed inside the womb and a normal pregnancy follows. If not done on the NHS it can cost up to £2,000 per cycle for a couple to go private. Most couples have three cycles at an average cost of £3,420.

Artificial Insemination by Husband

Artificial Insemination by Husband (AIH) involves the insertion of semen obtained from the husband which has been washed and treated into the cervix of the woman in order to achieve pregnancy.  With lower sperm quality insertion of sperm higher up the reproductive tract reduces the distance sperm have to swim to get to the egg.

It is estimated that hundreds of couples in Australia seek AIH each year.  This figure is increasing rapidly as this facility gains acceptance and publicity.  Whenever male infertility is untreatable, AIH may be employed as a helpful Method to provide the infertile couple with their desired family.

Artificial Insemination by Donor is practically the same

What is Embryo Donation? 
Embryo donation is another procedure that helps many infertile couples has a child.  With embryo donation, neither the mother nor the father is genetically related to the couples have a child. However, once again, the mother is able to carry the child and give birth.   In most cases, the available embryos arise from an assisted reproductive technology (ART) cycle of another couple.

Surrogacy

The surrogate uses the woman’s own egg fertilised with the intended father's sperm. This is done by artificial insemination using a syringe or there are an increasing number of infertility clinics willing to help with traditional surrogacy.

Around 6,000 babies a year are born in the UK to otherwise infertile couples as a result of in vitro fertilisation. But the techniques used often arouse huge controversy and some say the process can falsely raise would-be parents' hopes since it only has a success rate of around 15%.Infertility is often defined as not being able to get pregnant after trying for one year. In 2002, about 1.2 million, or 2%, had an infertility-related medical appointment within the previous year, and 10% had an infertility-related medical visit at some point in the past. (Infertility services include medical tests to diagnose infertility, medical advice and treatments to help a woman become pregnant.) Also, 7% of married couples in which the woman was of reproductive age 2.1 million couples reported that they had not used contraception for 12 months and the woman had not become pregnant.

Christian Attitudes, and the attitudes of Muslims, to these treatments

Infertility treatment is a new thing in England. In the past not having children was seen as a punishment from god. It was seen as a test from god by others.

Christians, Roman Catholics, Evangelical Christians and protestant people all have different views towards infertility treatment.

There are two very different views on infertility in Christians. The view from a Roman Catholic point is that life is given by God and no one has a right to children. Although the Roman Catholics have great sympathy for the couples that can’t have children, who want children, it allows methods which do not threaten the sacredness of life and in which sex acts are natural. This entire means is that the Embryo Technology is not allowed by the Catholics. There are several attitudes toward this matter, they are:

Firstly, IVF involves fertilizing eggs some of which are thrown away (which Catholics strongly disagree on because you are killing an life, this is the same as a abortion) secondly, all forms of artificial insemination or surrogacy involve masturbation by the male which is classed as a sin to Roman Catholics; thirdly, Catholics believe children have a right to know who their parents are and the law used to stop them finding out but now they are allowed. Last of all, all forms of Embryo Technology involve fertilization. However, having natural sex is ok. In addition, Catholics believe that god intended procreation to be a part of the sex act as well.

All other Christian Churches allow IVF and AIH because it is good to use technology provided to couples who want it. Secondly, the egg and sperm has to be from the husband and wife, not just anybody. Last of all, the discarded embryos are not fetuses and their destruction can be justified by the doctrine of double effect (the intention is to produce children for childless couples, not to kill embryos).

Although some Christians do believe in some Embryo Technology, they would still encourage couples to adopt.

In the bible, Sarah in the Old Testament gave her servant girl her husband so she could have a child. Some people would think that if they couldn’t have a baby; it was just that God just didn’t want them to have baby. Infertile in women were usually considered, grounds for divorce in most countries.

Most Muslims accept IVF and AIH when couples are having trouble having a baby due to infertility because they are simply using medicine to bring about the family life which all Muslims are expected to have. Also the egg and sperm is from the husband and wife not anybody else. This attitude is the same of what some Christians think. It is also allowed if discarded embryos are not foetuses and their destruction can be justified by the doctrine of double effect (the intention is to produce children for childless couples not to kill embryos).

In the Muslim religion all Muslims are expected to have had a good family life. However Islamic lawyers have banned all the other types of embryo technology because they all deny a child’s right to know its natural blood parents they also are seen as very similar to adoption procedures, which are banned in Islam and seen as wrong by Muslims.

In Islam, laws are taken from the Qur’an and the Shariah hence there are areas and topics where changes in those laws cannot be changed govern family life. No Muslim man is allowed to donate sperm to a woman who is not his legal wife and no woman is allowed to donate an egg to another woman as a donor. No child can be called after a person unless the sperm is that of the person to whom he belongs and he has been born by the women who is the legal wife of the man concerned.

“If a married women conceives using sperm form a third party because her husband is infertile this is seen as adultery also if a women carries an embryo fertilized with the sperm and egg of another couple the child legally belongs to the surrogate mother” therefore all other embryo technology is seen as wrong in Islam due to these beliefs expressed by the Islamic council of Britain.  

Why religious people may have problems with transplant surgery.

In the mid 1900’s transplant surgery was introduced but has over the years become more and more advanced. There is different transplant surgery from the organs, to the hair, to specific things like a hip and then to the heart and now to the face. However some religious people disagree with transplant surgery because most religious people believe that god made us how he wanted us to be and we shouldn’t change it.

        Transplant surgery is used to take organs from one person and put them into someone else to try to save their life. This only happen is the organs are malfunctioning or are diseased. There are hundreds even thousands of operations happening around the world but not all organs are compatible so drugs are usually used to prevent the organ being rejected by the person. There are two types of transplant surgery one uses organs from a dead person (e.g. heart or liver) and the other uses organs from a living person which they can live without (e.g. bone-marrow, single kidneys).

        One famous case of transplant surgery is when George Best had his liver changed. The story is that, George had drank over the years, so much, that his liver was at a critical stage and would, over the next few years of get to bad, so that it wouldn’t work and could  kill George Best. So the hospital found a new liver, which was taken from a dead man who died in a car crash. Then George’s liver was replaced. The new liver kept George alive and living healthy, until he started drink again. Sadly he later died.

        There are lots of non-religious arguments in favour of transplant surgery. For example it is an effective and proven method of curing life-threatening diseases, also it uses organs which would be not used or burnt etc. There are also arguments against transplant surgery like it is very expensive and requires high level of medicine for a very few people, it also raises the moral /emotional problem and it causes s trade in organs from people in the developing world to rich people in the developed world.

Most Christians agree with transplant surgery. However, they would object to rich people or surgeons in the developed world paying for organs from the poor. The reasons for this are, they think that God has given us our body so why should we start to change our body now; it causes problems for bodily resurrection.

Some Christians believe that transplant surgery is a bad thing, and they believe this because their body is the temple of their soul, and by us interfering with our body, we are interfering with our soul and we are trying to play God. Another reason is that God made us how we are, so why should we change what we have been given.

Other Christians believe that transplant surgery is a good thing and they believe that because that if people have problems, like kidney failure, they believe that people with problems like this, should be allowed to get this problem sorted, so they can stay alive and be healthy.

        On the other hand most Muslims are opposed to transplant surgery and will not carry donor cards. They believe using other people organs is against god. They have this attitude because the Shari’ah teaches that nothing should be removed from their body after death. Also the Qur’an says god has created our body us and changing it is a sin.

        Some Muslims allow transplant surgery using organs from a living donor as long as the donor is a close relative. They have this attitude because a ruling fatwa was issued by the Muslim law council of the UK in 1995 saying Muslims could carry donor cards and have transplants in the future it is likely to get even more complicated when scientists make organs to replace those which are diseased and worn out.

Overall there are lots of different views and attitudes towards transplant surgery.

‘Only God has the right to interfere with our genes’.

Our genes are the sequence of DNA or genetic codes that determine our characteristics. Therefore, by changing our genetics we must be effectively changing our characteristics and ourselves. In most religions, ‘playing God’ is regarded as a great sin, and so it follows that genetically altering a person’s unique genes is wrong.

Some Christians will disagree with ‘Only God has right to interfere with our genes’ because genetic engineering offers a prospect of cures for currently incurable diseases.  Other reasons that Christians disagree with the statement is that research into stem cell cloning would only use embryos until it was easier to use adult cells, also genetic research is closely monitored by law, but has vast potential benefits.

Some will disagree because they believe that there is not enough information about the long term consequences. It could have effects which could be irreversible. They also believe that it is putting too much power into the human hands of scientists. This also offers people the possibility to be genetically screened before getting life insurance. Therefore some believe it is not the job of anyone except god to interfere with genes in natural creations.

        Some Muslims will believe genetic engineering to acceptable if it is going to cure diseases like cystic fibrosis. Muslims believe in caring for others and also if genetic engineering is going to make peoples lives better it can only be god. Some worry that altering the genetic material of human’s plants and animals could have consequences we do not fully understand.

        These who do not believe in god also have mixed views about genetic engineering. For some being able to modify plants and animals and produce more food is a good thing but for others it is considered very dangerous because its genetically modified food we eat might affect us in some way we don’t really understand.

        Some people are concerned that genetic engineering is really just going to benefit the rich because they can make designer babies. I think genetic engineering could be good if it helps improve lives but it needs to be checked by the government to ma ke sure it does not get out of control.