Which is also extraordinarily heart-wrenching. A woman who was implanted with someone else’s embryo is preparing to give birth and hand over the baby to the biological parents. There was no easy way out in this case – how do you justify aborting someone else’s baby? How do you carry and deliver someone else’s baby? I can’t imagine how hard it must be for everyone involved, but I’m glad they chose the option that would let the baby live.
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This is one reason why the Catholic Church is against IVF – look at what happens when things go wrong. Pregnancy should occur naturally, and children should be brought into the world as intended, through the love of one father and one mother which creates new life.
As soon as you move away from that natural model, you wind up with heart-wrenching situations and impossibly sticky moral dilemmas too.
What a heartbreaking situation! How sad and disappointing for this couple. And — they were informed of the mistake by a *phone call* made to the husband at work?! In my estimation, the fertility clinic they used has a number of strikes against it!
I cannot even imagine how difficult the past months have been for the Savages. I also imagine it has been difficult, in an entirely different sort of way, for the biological parents. They had no legal right to any decisions made concerning the fate of their child – not until that child is born. And just how schizophrenic and perverse is our culture? The Savages had a legal right to kill that child in utero, but the instant it is born they MUST hand him over to the biological parents. While pregnant, Carolyn Savage has supreme decision-making rights, but the instant that child is delivered, she has no decision-making rights whatsoever. I am certain the biological parents are very grateful that the Savages are as gracious and prayerful as they have been.
I wish this sort of mix-up was a trifle more rare than the media has been indicating lately. PWPL reported on another recent case (June 16, Whose choice is it exactly?) where one woman’s only-remaining embryo was transferred into the wrong recipient. It resulted in a healthy pregnancy – that the second mother chose to abort! Imagine the pain and horror of knowing your child was aborted – by someone else? “Choice” played no role in it for the biological mother. The choice was completely taken out of her hands 🙁
I second what Julie said – Much as I can sympathize with any couple’s deep desire to have a child, IVF only opens up a can of worms. And Julie’s eloquent words….”As soon as you move away from that natural model (normal, natural conception), you wind up with heart-wrenching situations and impossibly sticky moral dilemmas too.”
Whoa, wait–IVF is bad because there might be a sticky situation? As opposed to other sticky situations like maternal cancer where you have to decide on waiting for chemo because you are pregnant, pregnancy from rape, pregnancy of someone not mentally competent? There are plenty of heart-wrenching situations in life and no guarantees for anyone, before during or after pregnancy.
I believe IVF is a miracle for my sister. Her husband has a low sperm count and the odds of naturally conceiving are astronomical. Should she divorce him and find someone more fertile? Is that natural? Is a c-section natural? How about neo-natal intensive care?
If the Catholic church opposes it I can respect that as a religious decision and would hope that a Catholic couple’s faith will bring peace to them.
What happened in this story is horribly sad and I can’t even comprehend the feelings involved for all four parents. But let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater.
Whenever people support something, such as abortion or IVF, they are usually thinking of individual cases, as the one above. However the “big picture” is much more complex and messy. While IVF may bring a wonderful ending to one couple, it is in fact opening up a huge can of worms for society as a whole.
Why IVF when adoption is possible? why is that women have to have their own biological children and go through a pregnancy in order to have a baby?
This really ends up being about the parents again, and the child comes secondary in this.
While couples get to feel all warm and fuzzy because IVF worked for them, that does not justify this procedure. The reality is not warm and fuzzy, it is terribly clinical and inhumane, with embryos frozen, discarded, misused – all of which could be avoided by simply not having IVF.
There are other ways to become parents, and insisting on having one’s own pregnancy, to me, is another manifestation of our selfish society.
I’d be curious to know what the legal options here would be: was this couple actually *required* to hand over the baby to his biological parents or could they have opted to keep him themselves? Is there legal precedent that would have made it unlikely that they could have kept him if they had wanted to? I could see a nasty custody case going forward if both sets of parents wanted him of course, but I’d be interested in knowing what rights either family had in this case.
And I believe this is the THIRD time in the past few months I’ve read in PWPL about IVF embryos getting mixed up. And that’s just one blog culling from the popular press. I wonder how often this actually happens.
I wondered about the after-delivery status of the baby too. But in the NBC clip from the news website (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/32950775#32950775), Carolyn specifically states they were told by the doctor that they could terminate, “and he made it clear to us that if we chose to continue the pregnancy, we would *have* to give the baby back”.
Her statement implies – that the doctor implied – that they legally had to forfeit the child. Give the baby “back”.
But I am wondering….what if the Savages had not been so gracious? What if they had wanted to keep the child that they had inadvertently and through no premeditation or fault of their own, acted as surrogate for? And how nasty would the courts have been in the ensuing battle?
And then: some left-wing-politically-correct-morons want Ontario (OHIP) to fund IVF not just for married couples, but also for single women and lesbians.
(homo-sexual men: they are trampling on YOUR rights in favour of women! Time for a sex-discrimination law-suit!)
Somehow the word “disgusting” does not even begin to describe my feelings.
If you have the money for IVF, it’s YOUR money.
And if you don’t? Tough. Deal with it. Some people never get married.
Oh, I forgot, that is not a requirement any more.