Treatments available to help infertile couples and christian views.

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  1. i. Treatments Available to Help Infertile Couples

Infertility in the western world in the past few years has become a much larger problem, and as many as ten percent of couples may be infertile in some way or another.

        Recently though, thanks to advances in embryo technology a much larger array of treatments have been made available to people:

In-vitro fertilisation (IVF) – This is where the egg of the female is fertilised outside of the womb, by the partners or possibly an outside donors sperm, and then the egg is replaced back inside the womb.

Artificial Insemination by Husband (AIH) – Where the sperm of the partner is inserted into the female by a mechanical means.

Artificial Insemination by Donor (AID) – This is the same process as the Artificial Insemination by Husband, but the sperm is provided by an anonymous donor.

Egg Donation – Where the egg is donated by an outside female and then is fertilised using IVF using the husband’s sperm before being placed into the mother’s womb.

Embryo Donation – This is where both the egg and the sperm are donated by outside parties or donors, are fertilised by IVF, and then the embryo is placed in the mother’s womb.

Surrogacy – This is either where the wife and husband donate an egg and sperm which are fertilised using IVF then placed in another woman’s womb or the Husbands sperm is used to fertilise the egg of another woman. Whichever way is used the baby is automatically handed over to the couple straight after birth.

        

All of these techniques are in use by couples throughout Britain at the moment, and are fully supervised by the ‘Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority’. So the government fully well approves of the treatment for infertile couples, and the embryo technology, however throughout the world there are many arguments about the morality of the treatment.  

 

  1. Christian Attitudes Towards Infertility Treatments

                In the Christian view towards infertility treatments there are two main viewpoints. One, of the Roman Catholic view, the opposing view is of the other Christian Churches.

  1. The Roman Catholic Views

        They feel that life is given by God alone, this then shows that no one has got a right to have children, or to give them children. Even though the Roman Catholic Church shows great passion and sympathy towards couples who are unable to have children but want children. The church only allows them to have children in ways that are not in any way risking the sacredness of life, which in turn only allows natural sex acts of love. From this the Catholic Church says all embryo technology is banned.

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This attitude is generally formed for the following reasons:

  • During the process of IVF more than one egg are fertilised, the ones not used, may be used in research, if not they will be thrown away. This is not allowed as it is classed as abortion, which in turn is forbidden by the Catholic Church.

  • Masturbation is a sin for Catholics, and all forms of artificial insemination and surrogacy involve masturbation, therefore it is also not allowed for this reason.

  • The Catholic Religion believes that all children have the right to know who there parents are, but ...

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