In Vitro Fertilization

"A new study has confirmed that beyond all the loss of life that happens when in vitro fertilization embryos are frozen for storage and unfrozen for use, there is massive loss of life even after embryos are transferred into their mother's womb.

Researchers at Yale School of Medicine have found that 85% of embryos transferred during IVF fail to live till birth.

IVF specialists stated that over a million children have been born due to IVF. (www.ivf.com/overview.html)

However with the results of the Yale study one can calculate that for a million children who have been born using IVF, over 6.7 million other children died in the process."

(New Haven Conn, Sept. 2005 - LifesiteNews.com - from Toronto RTL Assoc. Fall 2005)

In an article in the Atlantic Catholic, May 24, 2008, Fr. Tad Pacholczyk stated: "I often am asked the awkward question of what parents should do with their 'leftover' embryos following IVF."

  

He added, "Parental anguish and guilt are almost palpable in our conversations as they struggle to figure out a way to free their own children trapped in these frozen orphanages."

The article also indicates other ways in which embryos die (these stats may not have been included in the Yale study) --

-- those embryos that may have undergone "selective reduction", as in the case of multiple embryos when the doctor feels that survival of all the babies may not be feasible, so several are terminated in the womb,or

.

-- destroyed by clinic operators because they were deemed 'unfit', or

.

-- others handed over to researchers for embryo-destructive research.

(Fr. Tad Pacholczyk, Ph.D., Director of Education at The National Catholic Bioethics Center in Philadelphia www.ncbcenter.org)

 

Nova Scotians United for Life,

through the Project Rachel ministry,

would like to reach out to those parents who have lost children through IVF.

Do you feel a need to grieve these children of yours lost due to this procedure? 

Do you have other emotions that may have arisen from the IVF decision? 

We offer you a safe, non-judgmental environment to share the struggle you may be experiencing following an IVF procedure.