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A crisis of conscience spurred this Christian IVF doctor’s career pivot
AP News ^ | May 11, 2026 | Tiffany Stanley

Posted on 05/26/2026 7:42:21 PM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege

Dr. John Gordon, a reproductive endocrinologist, has been a man of faith for years. When he began to have doubts, they were not about his God, but his life’s work...

As co-director of a fertility clinic in suburban Washington, D.C., Gordon grew troubled over helping create surplus embryos, which would often languish in storage or be discarded. With the expansion of genetic testing, couples could choose the sex of their baby. They could screen out painful or fatal diseases, but also milder impairments like hearing loss.

“It’s too morally problematic,” Gordon thought. “I don’t know where you draw the line.”

In 2018, his wife pushed him to change how he practiced...

John Gordon soon bought a practice in Knoxville, Tennessee, and aligned it with his evolving faith-based views.

His Rejoice Fertility clinic does not discard viable embryos, genetically test them or donate them to science. It also limits how many embryos it creates...

“My favorite thing that he does is he prays with us before transfers,” Domenic D’Agostino said. “He focused in on the sovereignty of God in it and submitting to God’s will in this process.”


(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...


TOPICS: Religion; Science
KEYWORDS: bioethics; embryos; fertility; ivf; prolife
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So the question: is IVF okay so long as NO embryos are destroyed? 🙏

(I don't think the Catholic Church would say yes, but perhaps other Christians this would sit well with.)

1 posted on 05/26/2026 7:42:21 PM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege
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To: Morgana

Pro-life ping! 👶


2 posted on 05/26/2026 7:42:52 PM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege (🩰🎶)
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

If embryos are a distinct life, and are destroyed, where does that life go? Does it go to be with God? Considering that God is Love, maybe so.

Now. Let’s pervert that logic:

We better create lots and lots of embryos because God loves them.

And then, maybe that means the embryo destroyer is a murderer, and the victims go to God.

I won’t be doing any IVF.


3 posted on 05/26/2026 8:22:44 PM PDT by Scrambler Bob ( My pronoun is EXIT. Generally full of /S -- Living with Havana Syndrome -infected from Main Stream)
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

I once heard a biological anthropologist say that IVF helps genes which were not ideal for reproduction on their own, and would have otherwise been selected against, into future populations.

I had never thought of that viewpoint before, but it stuck with me.


4 posted on 05/26/2026 8:38:06 PM PDT by chud
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To: CondoleezzaProtege
So the question: is IVF okay so long as NO embryos are destroyed?

My thinking on abortion finally matured during the Scamdemic when I learned that NIH Director Francis Collins supported abortion and research on aborted fetal tissues. I don't support it.

7/27/2021: "COVID-19 vaccines and aborted fetuses"

In November 2020, it was widely claimed on social media, including this Facebook post with over 160,000 views, that the AstraZeneca vaccine contains MRC-5 cells from lung tissue of a male fetus which was aborted in the 1960s. This specific claim has been fact checked by Associated Press, Full Fact, Politifact, Reuters and Snopes and found to be false. However, the MRC-5 cell line was used in the preclinical testing of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

AstraZeneca did use the HEK 293 cell line to manufacture its vaccine (and Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna in the design of their vaccines). These cells originate from a fetus which was aborted in the Netherlands in 1973. The fetus was aborted legally at the time for other reasons, and not for the purposes of vaccine research. Alex Kasprak at Snopes has summarised the cell line’s origin story, which began with a Canadian scientist’s research into cancer.

Over the decades that followed, these cells have been cloned and replicated, many times.

Over the last couple years when IVF came back into the news, it struck me that it was not right to create surplus embryos, thought that is the standard proedure.

5 posted on 05/26/2026 9:11:14 PM PDT by MacNaughton
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To: chud

Makes you wonder about how genetically sound future generations will be if we’re selecting the weakest link.


6 posted on 05/26/2026 9:27:49 PM PDT by Republican1795.
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

This whole thing was wrong.


7 posted on 05/26/2026 11:43:04 PM PDT by roving
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

Glad this guy’s lightbulb went on.


8 posted on 05/27/2026 12:47:18 AM PDT by b4me (Pray, and let God change you. He knows better than you or anyone else, who He made you to be.)
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To: b4me

I shoulda read the article excerpt first. He’s still trying to play God artistically creating life. God knows HE created some people unable to have children and it was His plan. They have the options adopt or foster. God has purposes for not having children. It would seem it may make it easier to serve God in ways. Also shows you trust HIM instead of trying to serve/please your own desire.


9 posted on 05/27/2026 12:56:49 AM PDT by b4me (Pray, and let God change you. He knows better than you or anyone else, who He made you to be.)
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To: Scrambler Bob

“If embryos are a distinct life, and are destroyed, where does that life go? Does it go to be with God? Considering that God is Love, maybe so.”

First, embryos are a distinct life. The zygote would not form with different DNA from the mother if it were not separate.

The next question, “Where do souls go?” is more complex to answer.

The fact that prayers are used in the process is critically important. Whether is be a fetus, a teenager, or an elderly person, prayers are critically important in assisting souls to cross over into Heaven.

What are the options?

1. Souls can cross over into Heaven.

2. Souls can hang with the mother and enter the next ph6sical vehicle created and become the next child.

3. Souls can attach to the mother and remain there for the rest of her life parasitically. This often happens with abortions. I have encountered this many times with as many as five attached souls to one woman.

4. Souls can get stuck in this realm without a physical body and wonder around here for eternity.

Again, prayers for departing souls are critically important. Prayers are real physical tangible objects and they not only guide other souls across, but also call in angelic helpers.

🙏

PS. Dolly the first cloned sheep is an example of an old earthbound soul attaching to a newly developed embryo. That is why she prematurely aged.


10 posted on 05/27/2026 2:48:24 AM PDT by tired&retired (Blessings )
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To: tired&retired

Love is the key to successful fetal development. Without Love, including the mother-fetus emotional bond and attachment, the fetus does not develop.

This is supported in young children by the research of Bowlby and Ainsworth.


11 posted on 05/27/2026 2:55:51 AM PDT by tired&retired (Blessings )
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To: b4me

“He’s still trying to play God artistically creating life. “

Would that be true if he performed life saving fetal surgery to save the child?

Or even later in life by preforming surgery that saves a person’s life. I’ve worked with surgeons who burned out due to the guilt of not being able to save children in the ER.

There is an old joke, “What is the difference between a surgeon and God?” “God doesn’t claim to be God!” Good surgeons find eventually that God is working through them as carrying the burden of the perceived failures that cause people to die is greater than most souls can carry.


12 posted on 05/27/2026 3:04:30 AM PDT by tired&retired (Blessings )
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