In Vitro, or Babies in Glass

The mother of octuplets has been much in the news recently, with many people saying that she should not have had the kids. Yet, dig a little deeper and you find some interesting details:

1. She is and always has been unmarried.
2. She has six children already.
3. All of the children were conceived in vitro.
4. The last eight to be born were the "leftover" embryos.

In other words, some doctor found a sperm donor and helped her conceive at least fourteen children, who were then kept frozen until such time as she wanted to give birth to them. She had the last eight because she didn't want her embryos, that is, her children, to be destroyed.

Now, what's the message taken away from this? That someone was unethical for implanting the last eight in her? No. The unethical stuff started much earlier, when human beings were conceived in a glass jar, made into products to be stored on a shelf until such time as they might be allowed to grow.

Did you know that it is customary for many more embryos to be fertilized in vitro than will ever be brought to term? What happens to the excess, to the leftover human beings? Thrown out as medical waste. This woman, as crazy as she seems to be, at least didn't leave her children to die.

The real message is that, from start to finish, in vitro fertilization is very bad.