Death in a test tube

Dignitas Personae takes on bioethical concerns including freezing human egg cells. . . 

Fr. Alfred Cioffi

The Vatican examines the treatment of human embryos in its bioethics document Dignitas Personae, released late last year. The document takes on a myriad of bioethical concerns including freezing oocytes (immature ova or egg cells), the reduction of embryos and preimplantation diagnosis. Though none of these procedures is new, they have drawn the Vatican’s attention and that of Catholics around the world.

Freezing oocytes

Sperm banks have been freezing and thawing sperm (cryopreservation) for over 40 years. Freezing and thawing eggs (oocytes or ova), however, has been more difficult, mostly due to their much higher water content which tends to expand and contract during the process, thus destroying the cell. But earlier this decade, scientists began reporting success in cryo-preserving human eggs to the point that there are now also egg banks.

Theoretically, freezing human eggs is not intrinsically evil since there are some clinical settings in which a woman might benefit from such a technique (for example, to evaluate some aspect of her fertility that is otherwise impossible to ascertain). That is why, in making its moral evaluation, Dignitas Personae (DP) focuses on the intention for freezing a human egg. If the purpose is for in vitro fertilization (IVF), then the procedure is morally tainted. “In this regard it needs to be stated that cryopreservation of oocytes for the purpose of being used in artificial procreation is to be considered morally unacceptable” (DP #20). Emphasis in the original.

In June, New York’s stem cell board agreed to use public funds to pay women who donate their eggs for research. However, there are serious risks involved: Ovarian hyperstimulation and egg retrieval are dangerous and can be fatal. They can only be justified for extremely grave reasons. Women are often exploited for their eggs through financial incentives, which is the case in New York.

Embryo reduction

In a normal IVF procedure, typically three to four embryos (blastocysts) are inserted into the woman’s uterus; on average, only one implants. The other two or three are discarded by her body. There are times, however, when two, three, four or even more of the embryos implant. Because the woman or couple only wanted one child, they are offered the choice to terminate the “excess” embryos. In order to make an informed choice, the embryos or fetuses in her womb are tested for genetic defects and for gender. They can then select to abort the ones that might be carrying some genetic defect or are the “wrong” gender.

To intentionally kill a human being, no matter how early in development, is a grave moral evil. When this is done on the basis of the intentional selection of inheritable traits, it’s called “eugenics” and has serious consequences for all of society. “From the ethical point of view, embryo reduction is an intentional selective abortion. It is in fact the deliberate and direct elimination of one or more innocent human beings in the initial phase of their existence and as such it always constitutes a grave moral disorder” (DP #21). Emphasis in the original.

Preimplantation diagnosis

Preimplantation diagnosis (PID) is a type of prenatal diagnosis involving the three-to-four-day-old embryo before implantation (thus, PID is associated with IVF). Typically at the eight-cell stage, while the embryo is still growing in a Petri dish in a lab incubator, a single cell is plucked out and sent for genetic testing (karyotyping) and gender determination. The results can be used to choose for or against implanting that particular embryo.

This is another form of eugenics. In addition, there are further grave considerations for condemning PID: First, since each cell has the capacity to develop into a whole new embryo, extracting one cell (which could in fact be creating a new human being who will then be destroyed during the genetic analysis), another abortion will have occurred.

Second, there is no solid evidence yet that extracting a cell at this stage does not cause significant damage to the early embryo. To find out with certainty would require even more human embryo experimentation, which would be a gross violation of human rights.

Third, PID genetic testing is not accurate science, leading to the real possibility that many “normal” embryos will be killed due to false positive results (that is, that they indicate anomalies where there are none). Also, lethal selection based on gender is a grave intrinsic evil which should be self-evidently abominable.

“Preimplantation diagnosis, connected as it is with artificial fertilization — which is itself always intrinsically illicit, is directed toward the qualitative selection and consequent destruction of embryos, which constitutes an act of abortion” (DP #22). Emphasis in the original.

All three procedures — egg freezing, embryo reduction and preimplantation diagnosis — are closely associated with IVF, which has drastically negative consequences for human embryos, the parents who choose this method, the medical profession and society at large. Hence, it is imperative for people of influence (and all people of good will) to speak up against the IVF industry and its associated technologies, which is leading the contemporary developed world into eugenics. What makes the nefariousness of this eugenics even more urgently condemnable is the fact that IVF gives the appearance of being pro-life, but is not.

Rev. Alfred Cioffi, STD, Ph.D., is a staff ethicist for the National Catholic Bioethics Center.