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Regarding the Instruction Dignitas PersonaeAim In recent years, biomedical research has made great strides, opening new possibilities for the treatment of disease, but also giving rise to serious questions which had not been directly treated in the Instruction Donum vitae (22 February 1987).  A new Instruction, which is dated 8 September 2008, the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, seeks to provide some responses to these new bioethical questions, as these have been the focus of expectations and concerns in large sectors of society.  In this way, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith seeks both...

LOUISVILLE, January 11, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A leader of the evangelical movement in the United States recently came down hard on the effects of in vitro fertilization on his blog, decrying the destruction of millions of embryos for the sake of IVF.Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr., president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, the primary school of the Southern Baptist Convention and one of the largest seminaries in the world, called the destruction of embryos in IVF a tragedy, after reading a report in the London Times that over one million human embryos have been killed in IVF procedures...

LONDON, January 2, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Following a UK Parliamentary question, data from a government organization showed that over one million human embryonic children were killed in the UK in the past 14 years as 'waste' embryos from in vitro fertilization (IVF) processes. The acquired data showed that 2,137,924 embryonic humans were created using IVF between 1991 and 2005, but about 1.2m were never used. Scientists killed the embryos who were not deemed strong enough for implantation, and froze those not considered 'waste' embryos. Those that survived the freezing process will die in ten years if not implanted. 'Surplus'...

Leon R. Kass | Friday, 31 August 2007 How brave a new world? There is nothing "brave" or beautiful about the biotechnised world we are entering, says one of America's best-known bioethicists. This is a commencement speech made by Dr Leon Kass at St John's College, in Annapolis, Maryland, earlier this year. Dr Kass, a physician and philosopher, was the chairman of the President's Council for Bioethics from 2002 to 2005. He teaches at the University of Chicago. Surveying the world you graduates are about to enter, I am reminded of the ancient Chinese curse: "May you live in interesting...

California Company: We'll Turn Your Child's Sibling Embryos Into Extra Body Parts No evidence to support claims that stem cells from these embryos can offer any treatment By Hilary White A California-based biotechnology company, StemLifeLine, is making a special offer to parents of children conceived through in vitro fertilisation techniques: "We'll turn your spare embryos into embryonic stem cell lines tailored to your child's potential future medical needs." StemCellLifeLine's website calls it "a novel service for individuals who have undergone in vitro fertilization, fulfilled their childbearing needs and now have to decide what to do with their remaining stored embryos....

LONDON, England, July 24, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A recent British study shows that children conceived by IVF have increased health problems and spend almost double the time in hospital than naturally conceived children, the Daily Mail reports.The 7-year follow-up study, done in conjunction with Finnish studies, compared the hospital costs of IVF-conceived children to naturally conceived children. It examined 303 IVF-conceived children as well as 567 naturally-conceived children, all of whom were born between the years 1990 and 1995. Prior studies had reviewed the pregnancies of these children, their medical history and neo-natal health as well as the case notes of...

LONDON, February 19, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Powerful drugs given to women egg-donors to harvest their eggs can cause paralysis, limb amputation and death warns a new study by Italian experts. The warning comes from researchers at the University of Padua just days before the United Kingdom's Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) is expected to endorse a controversial new policy allowing doctors to pay healthy women for harvesting their eggs for research purposes. The Daily Telegraph reports that the scientists at the University of Padua discovered in their study that 34 women suffered severe reactions to the hormone-stimulating drugs,...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A team of British doctors has released the results of a new study showing that women who have an abortion run a higher risk of having a miscarriage in a subsequent pregnancy. The study also showed that women using in-vitro fertilization have higher miscarriage risks as well. The doctors, affiliated with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said the reasons behind the increased miscarriage risk were vague. However, they confirmed that women who had had a previous abortion experienced a 60 percent higher risk of having a miscarriage in another pregnancy. Women using the...

Infertile couples desperate to conceive children are turning increasingly to fertility specialists for help. Yet, widespread use of assisted reproductive technology (ART) has led to a completely unforeseen consequence: the creation of the world’s largest population of frozen human embryos. That reality has ignited a vigorous moral debate among scientists, politicians, theologians, and parents about what should be done with the surplus store of nascent human life.The challenge for pro-life evangelicals is to develop systematic moral reasoning that can be applied to a range of issues including embryo adoption, human embryonic stem cell research, ART, “therapeutic cloning,” genetic engineering,...

LEICESTER, England, August 10, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A British hospital has launched a probe into the death of a British woman, who passed away on Monday from surgical complications resulting from an egg harvesting operation during her in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment. The woman apparently suffered massive internal bleeding after the needle used to extract her eggs punctured one of the major arteries around her ovaries. According to The Sun, a British news journal, a spokesman for the Leicester Royal Infirmary confirmed: “A woman patient died on the gynecology ward after undergoing IVF in the Assisted Conception Unit. The circumstances...

I've always done everything on my own time-table, including waiting until after age 30 to get married. My husband and I remained childless and planned to never be parents, but now in my early 40's I'm feeling differently. I also am blessed in that I would be able to stay at home with the baby. For every story I've heard about age-related fertility issues, I've also heard of yet another couple who thought they couldn't get pregnant, didn't worry about birth control, and got a nice little surprise. I would like to hear from Freepers who have become parents either...

TORONTO, ON, July 21, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A pro-abortion columnist writing for the National Post has followed the logic of pro-life arguments about the evils of embryonic stem cell research and concluded that, if true, then artificial reproduction techniques must also be considered murderous on the scale of genocide. “In short, if embryos are human beings with full human rights, fertility clinics are death camps—with a side order of cold-blooded eugenics,” writes Kinsley in an article entitled Where’s the Logic? “No one who truly believes in the humanity of embryos could possibly think otherwise.” Kinsley explains that in vitro clinics,...

 VIRGINIA BEACH, Virginia, July 4, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – “Excess” babies are routinely aborted as part of in vitro fertilization techniques, a report by the Virginian-Pilot acknowledged yesterday. The report examined the problems associated with multiple births, a common occurrence when attempting to conceive and successfully carry a child using artificial technology. The success of IVF techniques typically rely on the insertion of multiple embryos to enhance a couple’s chances that at least one embryo will successfully implant and result in a pregnancy. Frequently, the procedure will result in more than one embryo implanting in the womb at a time, resulting...

Britain's first IVF "designer baby" clinic is to charge about £6,000 for a made-to-order infant. The £5 million centre will bring pioneering embryo screening techniques for the creation of "saviour siblings" to Britain. In addition, it will offer testing for up to 100 inherited gene disorders such as muscular dystrophy and cystic fibrosis. Embryos found to be carrying rogue genes will be discarded and only "healthy" embryos implanted into their mothers. Controversially, doctors at the centre have already obtained the first British licence to treat a couple with an inherited form of bowel cancer in the hope that their baby...

Evidence is growing that in vitro fertilization causes serious birth defects and genetic anomalies. The most recent study has shown that babies born from IVF have three times the rate of genetic brain disorders. The survey examines nearly all of the 1,105 IVF babies born in Ireland since 1989. The study particularly notes a comparatively high incidence of Beckwith-Wiedemann Syndrome (BWS) and Angelman Syndrome (AS) at almost three times that of the general population.  The study said that although the number of incidents of brain disorders are small, "there are strong circumstantial observations that suggest a cause-and-effect relationship between assisted...

Assisted Reproductive Technologies are Anti-WomanBy Marie Anderson, M.D., FACOG and John Bruchalski, M.D. "Assisted reproductive technologies" (ART) broadly includes any therapy directed towards improving the chances of conception for an infertile couple. In 1978 one form of this technology made its debut when Louise Brown was born after her mother underwent IVF (in vitro fertilization). At the time, the scientific world marveled at man's accomplishment in creating the first "test tube baby." Now it seems more as if we have opened Pandora's Box. Initially it sounded simple to mix sperm and an egg in a Petri dish, but we...

UPDATE ON HUMAN CLONING AND FETUS FARMS      This is an update from the Federal Legislation Department at National Right to Life in Washington, D.C., 202-626-8820, Legfederal@aol.com, issued on September 21, 2005.        It now appears that consideration of various bills dealing with embryonic stem cell research, human cloning, and related issues in the U.S. Senate will be delayed, at least until October 2005 and perhaps longer, due in part to preoccupation with legislation related to Hurricane Katrina, and the two Supreme Court vacancies.  The issue also continues to percolate in a number of state legislatures.  This update provides you with...

Brain-damaged IVF stroke victim wins negligence case SHAN ROSS A WOMAN who was left brain damaged after a series of strokes following her third cycle of IVF was awarded "very substantial" agreed damages yesterday. An emotive message from the 34-year-old accountant was read out in court by her QC. In it, the woman, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, said: "IVF. I was so happy. Looked forward to my newborn baby. Unfortunately miscarried. Baby die. Disaster happen. "Then stroke. Disaster. Now my face fine but my body will never be the same. My son is torn apart. One year...

Copenhagen, Denmark: Scientists in the UK have proved that human embryonic stem cells can develop in the laboratory into the early forms of cells that eventually become eggs or sperm. Their work opens up the possibility that eggs and sperm could be grown from stem cells and used for assisted reproduction, therapeutic cloning and the creation of more stem cells for further research and for the improved treatments for patients suffering from a range of diseases. Behrouz Aflatoonian will tell the 21st annual conference of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology today (Monday 20 June) that the research...

"...In December, Ms. Stiller gave birth to the baby, named Samantha, for Dr. Friedman and Dr. Wellisch, conceived with a donor egg and the sperm from one of the partners. (They chose not to know which.) In her decision to work with them Ms. Stiller is part of a small but growing movement of surrogate mothers choosing gay couples over traditional families."

Croatia's Catholic Bishops Warn In Vitro Fertilization is “a Serious Crime” ZAGREB, February 25, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Catholic Bishops of Croatia have succeeded in putting off government legislation on medically assisted reproduction that would have permitted donation of human ova and embryos. In a highly effective brochure, the church leaders combined arguments from faith and reason to defeat the measure. In a Feb 4 news conference on the brochure, the bishops explained that IVF is “a serious crime against conceived human lives and their dignity”. They explained in their brochure that scientific facts reveal that there is a massive...

Human stem cells trigger immune attackJessica Ebert Doubt cast on therapeutic use of embryonic cell lines. Exposure to molecules from animals might have made human stem cells unacceptable.© ANDREW LEONARD / SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY Most human embryonic stem-cell lines, including those available to federally funded researchers in the United States, may be useless for therapeutic applications. The body's immune defences would probably attack the cells, say US researchers. When embryonic stem cells are added to serum from human blood, antibodies stick to the cells. This suggests the cells are seen as foreign, and that transplanting them into the body would...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Catholic teaching has called in-vitro fertilization techniques immoral for decades. But most Catholics still haven’t heard the news. California attorneys Anthony and Stephanie Epolite found out the hard way that in-vitro fertilization wasn’t all it’s cracked up to be. After years of marriage, and facing her 39th birthday still without a baby, Stephanie turned to a fertility clinic.Two years and $25,000 later, the couple had nothing but frustration and embarrassment to show for the time spent on in-vitro fertilization (in-vitro fertilization)."We were emotionally, financially and spiritually spent," Stephanie Epolite said. "The clinic did no diagnostic tests. They...

The world just learned that "Catholic" actress Brooke Shields is the proud mother of a new baby girl. For a long time infertility problems made it impossible for her and her husband to conceive, and after many failed attempts to conceive naturally she resorted to the technological solution: in vitro fertilization (IVF). Now she is pictured on the covers of glamorous magazines with a smiling beautiful baby girl, but some have questioned her decision to use IVF. I am one of them. Was this star wrong to have a "test tube" baby? Yes. Dead wrong. While recognizing the pain of...

LifeSite Daily News Thursday December 18, 2003 Over 200,000 U.S. Embryonic Children Killed in IVF Attempts in 2002 WASHINGTON, December 18, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has released the seventh annual assisted reproductive technology (ART) report detailing the 2002 success rates for 384 fertility clinics around the country. A LifeSiteNews.com analysis of the figures reveals that over 220,000 human embryos created through the process died and only 40,687 survived to birth. The report did not detail how many embryos died without being transferred into their mothers' wombs, nor did it detail the number of embryos...