By Judie Brown
Texas senator Ted Cruz and Alabama senator Katie Britt have introduced a piece of legislation designed to protect in vitro fertilization—a practice that places the creation of human beings into the hands of men and women of science.
As Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger made clear in the Vatican document Donum Vitae (Instruction on Respect for Human Life in Its Origin and on the Dignity of Procreation), IVF is but one of the technologies that violates the principles of Catholic morality by making “it possible to intervene in the initial phase of the life of a human being and in the very processes of procreation.”
What Cruz and Britt are proposing in this legislation is the setting aside of the laws of nature and the replacing of these laws with man’s arrogant imposition of his own will. As the proposal states, ‘‘‘In vitro fertilization’ means the practice whereby eggs are collected from ovaries and manually fertilized by sperm, for later placement inside of a uterus.”
In other words, this legislative proposal is designed to usurp the procreative powers of a man and a woman by use of a petri dish and a collection of human genetic material. If this sounds a bit like science fiction, be assured that the practice has been around for many years and is simply a man-made attempt to play God.
While we understand the great pain suffered by those who find that they are unable to procreate children due to sterility, we also know that even in suffering God has a plan, and we must uphold the dignity of preborn babies at all stages. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger understood this as well.
The Vatican document, written in 1987, contains words of compassion and instruction. Not only did Ratzinger write about the reasons why IVF is wrong, but he also expressed Christ’s mercy. He wrote of the profound agony couples experience and suggested that by embracing this pain as a “particular way” of bearing Christ’s cross, sterile couples are invited to use “the occasion for other important services to the life of the human person, for example, adoption, various forms of educational work, and assistance to other families and to poor or handicapped children.”
Through their pain and sorrow, infertile couples are thus invited to overcome their grief in the service of others. Turning pain into loving charity seems nearly impossible for those who cannot bear children, yet it is an opportunity to reflect the attitude of the Good Samaritan, thus bringing loving sacrifice to their veil of tears.
Ratzinger understood this pain, but he pointed out that IVF could never be the proper response to sterility. He wrote:
Such fertilization is in itself illicit and in opposition to the dignity of procreation and of the conjugal union, even when everything is done to avoid the death of the human embryo. Although the manner in which human conception is achieved with IVF and ET cannot be approved, every child which comes into the world must in any case be accepted as a living gift of the divine Goodness and must be brought up with love.
It is very clear that IVF is illicit because it denies the dignity and respect due the child from her beginning, replacing nature’s design with test tubes and a petri dish. Yet God calls to surrender to Him the suffering caused by infertility. This simple truth is lost in the world of politics because for some reason total understanding of God’s plan evades those who feel empowered by their political position to set themselves up as gods.
The die was cast years ago when the government usurped the role of family planner by upholding the alleged “rights” to contraception and abortion. This latest move, the Cruz IVF Ruse, is but another example of man’s impudence, as many sink even deeper into a vain attempt to play God.
We hope this Cruz Ruse dies on the vine.