Journal: Trinity Journal
Volume: TRINJ 14:2 (Fall 1993)
Article: A Baby At Any Cost And By Any Means? The Morality Of "In Vitro" Fertilization And Frozen Embryos
Author: John S. Feinberg

TrinJ 14:2 (Fall 1993) p. 143

A Baby At Any Cost And By Any Means?
The Morality Of In Vitro Fertilization
And Frozen Embryos

John S. Feinberg *

Junior Davis and his wife Mary Sue had five unsuccessful pregnancies during their nine-year marriage. Then, they turned for help to in vitro fertilization. More eggs were taken and fertilized than were implanted. The two that were implanted failed to produce a pregnancy. The rest of the embryos were frozen. Later the couple filed for divorce. Who should get custody of the seven frozen embryos? Both parents wanted them, and neither wanted the other to have custody.1 On June 1, 1992, the Tennessee Supreme Court ruled that Mary Sue could not use the embryos to become pregnant, for so doing would force her former husband into fatherhood. Based on privacy rights and the “procreational autonomy” of each person, the court reasoned that the father’s right to avoid procreation should not be abridged. Moreover, there were other ways that his former wife could have a child.2

Is in vitro fertilization morally right? What about freezing unused fertilized eggs? If it is morally permissible to freeze spare embryos, what is moral to do with them after they are frozen? These things are being done, but should they be done? Because of advances in medical technology, it is now possible to manipulate reproduction as never before. But, these reproductive options raise ethical questions that must be faced.

In this essay I want to address the issues raised by in vitro fertilization and frozen embryos. They raise social and legal questions, but my major concern is to assess their morality. In

* John S. Feinberg is Professor of Biblical and Systematic Theology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. This article is an adaptation from a chapter in Ethics for a Brave New World, by John S. and Paul D. Feinberg (Westchester, IL: Crossway, 1993). It is used with the publisher’s permission.

TrinJ 14:2 (Fall 1993) p. 144

particular, I want to discuss whether there are any circumstances under which either of these practices is moral.

I. In Vitro Fertilization: Basic Facts And Figures

In vitro (literally, “in glass”) rather than in vivo (literally, “in living”) refers to the technique of fertilizing an egg in an artificial environment outside the body. As the procedure is practiced, it involves fertilization in a petri dish. The birth of the first IVF baby in 1978 came after many years of unsuccessful experiments. As early as 1878 in Germany there was an unsuccessful attempt to fertilize eggs in the labor...