SPUC has warned of the “human price tag” that comes with IVF, following the publication of a report revealing that around 5% of babies born in Australia are born by “unethical” IVF techniques.
Antonia Tully, SPUC’s Director of Campaigns, said: “Our hearts go out to infertile couples, but IVF carries a huge human price tag. Normally in every IVF cycle, tiny human embryos are discarded, with about one in 25 embryos created through IVF surviving to birth. The endangerment and deliberate discarding of human life through IVF makes this a profoundly unethical technique.”
The new Australian report from the University of New South Wales found that one in ten babies born to women over the age of 35 were the result of IVF. The president of the Fertility Society of Australia, Professor Luk Rombauts, asserts that IVF could help bolster Australia’s fertility rate.
But Antonia Tully said: “IVF is a multi-million-pound industry that exploits embryos for profit. Couples undergoing IVF treatment bear enormous emotional stress. With an 80% failure rate, most couples trying to have a child by IVF will end up with nothing but heartbreak.”
Staggering numbers
The number of embryos lost through IVF in Britain was released by the Government in 2019. In 2017 alone, 174,622 embryos were discarded in the course of treatment, or after they had been taken out of storage. The number of embryos destroyed between 1991 and 2017 was 2,753,560.
And according to Professor Rombauts, an estimated eight million babies have been born through IVF globally.
“These figures are simply staggering”, said Antonia Tully. “While the birth of a baby is always good, IVF strips unique tiny human beings of all value and turns babies into a commodity to be purchased, rather than a precious gift to be welcomed.”
Ethical fertility treatments
Michael Robinson, SPUC’s Director of Communications, added: “It is important to remember that IVF doesn’t actually treat infertility problems, it merely bypasses them. The Billings Ovulation Method and NaProTech are ethical, healthy and more successful alternatives to IVF. In particular, the work of Fertility Care Scotland must be commended.
“Unlike in IVF, in Billings and NaProTech no embryonic children are killed or exposed to harm in the laboratory. Health care resources should prioritise ethical and successful ways of helping childless couples - ways which don't involve wasting and degrading human life.”