IVF is Immoral

In-vitro fertilization, or IVF is gravely immoral for at least six reasons:

1. One or more human zygotes are created that may be destroyed later for research or to create additional space for newly created human zygotes;
2. A human is created unnaturally and not in a marital embrace;
3. Sperm is collected by degrading means, degrading for the man and for those involved in the porn industry;
4. An objectified surrogate mother may be used that is not the actual mother of the newly created human;
5. One must pay money to create and implant a human zygote into a woman;
6. A human child that is up for adoption looses their chance to be placed into a foster or adopted family’s home.

I look forward to the day when a human zygote legally becomes part of the human family and is not manipulated, created, or destroyed as a piece of property by morally bankrupt means. Yes, I hope IVF one day becomes illegal.

Update (1-23-2009):
For some more information about the unethical nature of IVF see this: "Couples Tempted by IVF Face a Number of Moral Dilemmas" by Kate Bluet

A sampling from Ms. Bluet:

Since abortion was legalized, the number of babies put up for adoption has plummeted. Would-be adoptive parents far outnumber the babies who need a home. The control of childbearing has resulted in a dearth of children. Infertile couples who want children must therefore choose between long waiting lists and assisted reproduction.
...
Of course, it’s possible for a multiple pregnancy to be reduced, and the procedure is fairly common. After all, goes the logic, better to lose two babies in utero than lose all four at birth. Doctors can determine the position of all the fetuses by using ultrasound. They will then test those fetuses that are easiest to reach for abnormalities. And if all the fetuses are equally healthy and get-at-able, the doctors will ask the parents which gender they would prefer to keep.
...
Luckily for us, we’re not the ones who have to find out; that’s left to the babies being born in greater and greater numbers who will have to struggle with questions of genetic identity, with siblings lost in utero, and with the fact that half of their genes were shopped for and purchased by credit card.

Talk about sick!

No Morality Without God

I’ve already finished “The God Delusion” by Dawkins, and I’ll be resuming the breakdown of the book later. However, I would like to make one observation about materialism and atheism.

I’ve heard many atheists and agnostics say that they can be “moral” even if they don’t believe in God. In other words, they can believe that they can act morally even though they do not believe in God. I believe this claim is self-contradictory and false. One cannot deny the existence of God while at the same time believe that they are moral.

If one does not believe in God, I would argue, one is a materialist by definition. If there is nothing spiritual or supernatural, everything has only a material dimension contained within. Since everything is believed to contain only material essence, only material causes can determine how everything acts. Since only material manipulates material, there is no basis for morality since morality presupposes that there is a free will contained in some material in some fashion. In other words, in order for a material human to be moral, more than just internal material processes must determine any action taken.

For an atheist to be non-contradictory, there can be no morality since only material processes determine causes and ends. Therefore, one cannot believe at the same time that God does not exist and that they are moral.

On the other hand, as a Christian, I believe free will is a spiritual construct that comes from God since humans were specifically chosen to be made in the image and likeness of God. Theists, and even Deists can be moral since they believe that morality has a basis in God, in whatever form. Further, Christians can acknowledge that Atheists are moral or immoral since Christians have a non-material basis for morality. However, to be consistent, Atheists can never see anyone as moral, otherwise they will be indirectly acknowledging a moral Creator of the moral universe.

An Assessments of a Zygote Argument

Hello,
I am new to the discussion and to your blog. The arguments above are very interesting. I have a few points to pose.
Premise 2 seems strange to me for three reasons.

1. In biology, the development of organisms is a natural function of their existence. In order to appear as a mature organism, said organism goes through a series of stages to reach maturity. Therefore, in all those stages, it is the organism that it's DNA programs it to be.

2. There are concepts of active and passive potential. A heap of scrap metal has passive potential to become a car. An agent outside the boundary of the scrap metal must do work to create a car.
A lit match and dry wood that are in physical contact have active potential to become a bonfire. In just letting the lit match and dry wood "do what they do", so to speak, the bonfire naturally matures.

The zygote, if left in the correct environment has active potential to become a fetus, baby, toddler, child, teenager, and adult. A skin cell has passive potential to become a zygote.

3. In terms of engineering, a car does not become a car because an internal stereo is added. The modified car still functions as the original car.

(In general I like the SLED test.)

Let me know what you think.

Abortion for Capital

It just struck me today that abortion has a stake in the economy of the world just as slavery was part of it, especially of the US South before the civil war. The South went to war for succession from the union, but for what reason? History tells us that a slave was worth everything for the South and that if that body was lost or turned free, the South’s wealth would be lost. Lives were being used as labor and as a capital good in multiple industries by almost everyone.

The same goes for abortion today.

• Abortion mills such as Planned Parenthood provide abortions and contraception that fails in order to create the “need” for abortion. (not to mention lobbies for sex-ed that leads to more abortions)
  
• Aborted fetuses are sold to pharmaceuticals and biological industries for vaccines (including MMR), drugs (including “The Pill” and other abortifacient), and bio-products' creation and testing. (big, big bucks folks)
• Abortion providers, pharmaceuticals, and biological industries give politicians lots of money.
• The abortion topic helps political candidates win political offices (goes for both sides).
• Men want abortion to keep them from becoming fathers and loosing money towards child support.

No wonder Democrats like Senators Ted Kennedy (D) and Joe Biden (D) switched their view on the topic. (Yes, they used to be pro-life, or OTAAAC.)

Today we don’t have borders to differentiate the sides. It takes a culture war to fight and outlaw abortion as slavery was in the Constitution (Amendments 13-15).

Do I want a zygote to be protected by the Constitution? You bet. Yes, it will also outlaw in-vitro implantation (IVF), test-tube babies, and “The pill” (etc.). It’s what is right, just as outlawing slavery was.

Abortion will continue but so has slavery. Outlawing abortion -- as slavery has been -- is the right thing to do for justice for all.

We all have a right to life from the moment we come into existence as a zygote.

That's why I can be called a zygote emeritus. You and I were once zygotes; we are now people who can read.

Violent and Degrading Passions

One of P.Z. Myers’ Atheist minions emailed the following to “Mike Koelzer, a member of American Life League Associate group Pharmacists for Life International.”

‘And..... the rumor is you have quite a nice looking butt and if you play your cards right ... well, let's just say, I can be awfully grateful.’
http://www.lifesitenews.com/

This reminds me of Romans 1, Sodom & Gomorrah, and a blog series I wrote for Ales Rarus regarding a homosexual bible study I attended at Pitt.

Therefore, God handed them over to impurity through the lusts of their hearts for the mutual degradation of their bodies.
They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and revered and worshiped the creature rather than the creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
Therefore, God handed them over to degrading passions. Their females exchanged natural relations for unnatural, and the males likewise gave up natural relations with females and burned with lust for one another. Males did shameful things with males and thus received in their own persons the due penalty for their perversity.
And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God handed them over to their undiscerning mind to do what is improper.
Romans 1:24-28

The two angels reached Sodom in the evening, as Lot was sitting at the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he got up to greet them; and bowing down with his face to the ground, he said, "Please, gentlemen, come aside into your servant's house for the night, and bathe your feet; you can get up early to continue your journey." But they replied, "No, we shall pass the night in the town square."
He urged them so strongly, however, that they turned aside to his place and entered his house. He prepared a meal for them, baking cakes without leaven, and they dined.
Before they went to bed, all the townsmen of Sodom, both young and old--all the people to the last man--closed in on the house.
They called to Lot and said to him, "Where are the men who came to your house tonight? Bring them out to us that we may have intimacies with them."
Genesis 19:1-5

This email is almost a case study of what happens to someone when they don’t believe in God: they want to have “unnatural” “intimacies” with those of the same sex. Instead of holy and loving “intimacies” in marriage, they are traded for “shameful” and violent and degrading ones.

May God have mercy on us all.

Happy Constitution Day!

On this day in 1787, the Constitution of the United States of America was signed. May everyone at least read it once in their life.

Apparently, Whoopi hasn't.



This is my point: Has McCain read it? If he is such a maverick, why didn't he stand up to Whoopi with the truth of the document in history? It would've been a great teaching moment for all of us, especially for women watching "The View". In order to lead, one has to tell it as it is.

(Goes for Ellen about gay "marriage", too.)


I guess it's that he wants to get elected. Will he take up the teaching role as President?

I hope he has the guts to tackle the big people in the White House. They're a little more powerful.

He needs to be more than a Super-Senator.

The Pill

Did I mention that "The Pill" is an abortifacient (a substance that causes an abortion)?

By It’s Fruit

The abortion and gay issues may be coming to a head. They first have to hit rock bottom before the Truth comes around and exposes the falsehoods. After sin is exposed to the light, it can be purged.

I think with the candid admissions below, it’s the time in history when respective policies may turn around in democratic or semi-democratic countries. My wife is not too sure. She thinks the worst is yet to come. We’ll see.

The admissions come from Camille Paglia and Simon Fanshawe, respectively. (See LifeSiteNews.com)

The woman who is pro-abortion as a choice (PAAAC) is an atheist and libertarian who admits that “Abortion is Murder” but is nonetheless justified. “I believe that government must stay completely out of the sphere of personal choice. Every individual has an absolute right to control his or her body.” She says later that “[abortion] results in the annihilation of concrete individuals and not just clumps of insensate tissue.” This clearly contradicts her position: since each individual has a right to control his or her own body, or to have life, the ”concrete individual” must be free to live.

The man who is gay says that the "Gay Lifestyle a 'Sewer' of Casual Degrading Sex, Drug Abuse and Misery”. In other words, the gay lifestyle makes human persons into animals: it degrades their human dignity in a truly concrete way. I would argue even “sexually committed gay relationships” do this since they contain the same humanly degrading sex as those that are not committed.

From the two people, I see that the fruit of both positions is death: infanticide (actually it’s back now in, of course, the Netherlands) and the annihilation of society into the ways of the sexually active gay person (by having no children and being self-destructive and degrading) are only a step away.