{"id":300766,"date":"2023-10-28T15:55:16","date_gmt":"2023-10-28T20:55:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=300766"},"modified":"2023-10-27T14:32:03","modified_gmt":"2023-10-27T19:32:03","slug":"christian-writer-expresses-regret-ivf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/christian-writer-expresses-regret-ivf\/","title":{"rendered":"Christian writer expresses regret over choosing IVF: ‘I’m not God and I was playing Him’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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When writer <\/span>Ericka Andersen<\/span><\/a> first began the IVF process, she believed it was consistent with her pro-life principles. \u201cI\u2019d been a vocal, pro-life advocate since elementary school, but IVF felt like the opposite of abortion. It was life creation, not destruction,\u201d she <\/span>wrote<\/span><\/a> on Substack.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But Andersen \u2014 whose works have been featured in publications such as New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Christianity Today and others \u2014 soon became aware of the troubling ethical issues involved in IVF.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAt first, I didn\u2019t think a lot [about] it because I became pregnant and my dreams of motherhood became reality \u2014 twice over,\u201d she wrote. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t until the dust settled on babyhood that I began to consider the \u2018batch\u2019 of embryos from which my two children came.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Andersen continued: \u201cI began to imagine them side-by-side [with] their siblings, recognizing that they were conceived in the exact same way at the exact same time as the others. That it was by luck these two were chosen \u2014 these two who are 2 years apart but came into existence at the same time, just like the others.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

These were heartbreaking meditations. \u201cI have deep anguish at the lives that I haven\u2019t carried, the siblings of my children that they will never meet. The babies I will never know, whose eyes I will not see, whose bodies I will not rock, whose smiles I will not recognize,\u201d Andersen shared. <\/span><\/p>\n

Nine of her IVF-created embryos are reportedly \u201csitting on ice in a freezer.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI knew IVF could create extra embryos and I prayed that our process would give us exactly the number we wanted to parent: three would be perfect. But I\u2019m not God and I was playing Him \u2014 or letting doctors do so at least,\u201d Andersen wrote, adding, \u201cYou can\u2019t make an iffy, ethical choice in hopes it will work out as you wish.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n