Video Transcript

Dr. Lauren Rubal - Board-certified OB/GYN & Integrative Medicine Physician

Over the last two decades, IVF, or in vitro fertilization has become an increasingly popular option for couples seeking to have children, especially those who are suffering with infertility. You may very well know someone who has been offered or underwent in vitro fertilization. Recent data from 2023 shows that about 1 in 6 couples worldwide deal with infertility. In fact, about 240,000 couples did IVF in 2021 in the US. IVF has created over a million live born children, with at least a million more frozen.

My name is Dr. Lauren Rubal. I’m a board certified Ob/Gyn & Integrative Medicine physician with a subspecialty in Reproductive Endocrinology & Infertility. In my early career, I had a comfortable, pensioned job in a traditional fertility practice. At that time, I was focused on the terrible suffering that many couples with infertility and pregnancy loss endure. For many of these patients, the treatment that I was able to offer was IVF. The endgame is what mattered to me: the child at the end of the treatment. But as I practiced the daily tasks of my profession, I was haunted by troubling moral questions that didn’t square with the objective of my work: to heal.

Infertility is a unique and profound suffering and its end goal, a child, is always good. But is IVF the perfect solution it’s been depicted as? Let’s talk about the significant ethical, medical, & cultural issues with IVF.

So first, what exactly is in vitro fertilization?

IVF is a roughly 2-week process designed to obtain eggs, which are then fertilized with sperm in a laboratory. To do so, injections are given to mature multiple eggs instead of the one that is naturally released. But instead of ovulating, the eggs are surgically removed from the ovaries and given to an embryologist. This person either puts each egg into a dish with multiple sperm, or they choose a sperm to inject into the egg. The next day the dishes are checked, with about 80% of them now containing an embryo.

What is an embryo?

An embryo is a human being at the earliest stages of his or her development, formed through a process called fertilization: when sperm and egg meet. He or she is a unique, substantially whole new human being. Sex, blood type, hair color, eye color are just a few of the traits immediately determined at fertilization. This new human being is one of a kind, never before existing and never to exist again.

At this point in the process, these embryos have one of three fates:

They will be transferred back to a woman’s uterus, they will be flash frozen and stored, or they will be destroyed.

This is the fundamental ethical issue with IVF: the destruction or abandonment of life.

A recent study showed that the number of embryos needed to optimize cumulative live birth rates was 9. This means that up to 8 embryos may not survive or will be frozen or destroyed. Other data derived from the UK, show that only 7% of created embryos are live-born, which means that 93% aren’t.

So effectively, you are choosing the death of 9 to get the life of 1. Even though you have good intentions - you just want life - you’re also choosing all of the consequences that follow. Our subjective intentions don’t rule out the objective reality that you are choosing death for the others, and is therefore not a choice for life. Every child conceived in IVF has the right to life, and should not be killed.

Another problem with IVF is the suspension of life many embryos are subjected to.

Over one million embryos are currently frozen in the US. This process treats these human beings, each with their own unique DNA, like no more than property - a commodity to store or dispose of at will.

On top of the ethical problems, there are also significant health risks to the mother and child. Women who conceive through IVF have about twice the risk of life-threatening complications during their pregnancies, and 26% increased risk of preterm birth, which is significant because babies born prematurely may die, have damaged organs, or develop cerebral palsy.

Children conceived through IVF have a 40% increased chance of birth defects, roughly double the chance of Autism, and 4 times the chance of stillbirth.

So, what alternatives are there to IVF?

Well, what many do not realize about infertility is that it is often a symptom of an underlying issue. It can be the result of hormone imbalances, inflammation, or poor nutrition.

Restorative Reproductive Medicine (RRM) is a whole-person approach that looks at understanding the reasons behind fertility issues using nutrition, supplements, hormone optimization, and even surgeries to normalize structure & anatomy.

Women deserve a diagnosis of what’s causing their infertility, because what’s causing their infertility is not only preventing them from having a baby, but it may be having a ripple effect on their overall health.

I can’t overemphasize the sympathy and empathy I feel for all couples who are struggling with infertility, and I don’t blame the people who have made these decisions – I think people’s understanding of life has been obscured. And of course, children are always a beloved gift. But the truth needs to be proclaimed. Instead we should seek to address the underlying causes of infertility with a more holistic approach to women’s health.