Ethical and Moral Issues Related to In Vitro Fertilization

1. Fate of any stored embryos should a couple divorce - is the embryo property or a person. Who can claim the embryo or determine if it is to be destroyed or kept in frozen stasis?
2. Rights of the sperm or egg donor - some States laws include that donors have no parental rights, however this is not as clearly delineated in other States.
3. Destruction of residual embryos - are we, in fact, murdering children? Some religious beliefs feel that we are taking the life of a child, rather than a potential being.
4. Selective reduction in the event of multiple successful implants - selective abortion of a fetus or more than one fetus, to promote a more successful outcome for the remaining fetuses, is viewed the same as the destruction of residual embryos. Some believe that a child begins at conception rather than at birth.
5. Religious morality regarding the use of assistive reproductive technologies (ART)- the Catholic tenets specifically restrict the use of ART such as IVF. The Donum Vitae states that intrusion of someone other than a man and his spouse in the making of a child is immoral, which rules out donor sperm and eggs, and fertility treatments to promote conception.