Friday’s ruling was cheered by anti-abortion activists nationwide, who have long argued that life begins at conception. They were thrilled that, for the first time, a court included conception outside the uterus in that definition. But the strongest and most immediate effect of the decision will be on fertility patients trying to get pregnant, not women seeking to end their pregnancies. (end)
What is an embryo used for IVF? (begin) Three days after fertilization, a healthy embryo will contain about 6 to 10 cells. By the fifth or sixth day, the fertilized egg is known as a blastocyst — a rapidly dividing ball of cells. The inner group of cells will become the embryo. The outer group will become the cells that nourish and protect it. (end) The important distinction is that which is implanted in a woman’s uterus is called an embryo but it is simply a blastocyst. Read on.
From the University of California at San Francisco we have the following information: (begin) Following ovulation, the egg is capable of fertilization for only 12 to 24 hours. Contact between the egg and sperm is random. Once the egg arrives at a specific portion of the tube, called the ampullar-isthmic junction, it rests for another 30 hours. Fertilization — sperm union with the egg — occurs in this portion of the tube. The fertilized egg then begins a rapid descent to the uterus. The period of rest in the tube appears to be necessary for full development of the fertilized egg and for the uterus to prepare to receive the egg. Defects in the fallopian tube may impair transport and increase the risk of a tubal pregnancy, also called ectopic pregnancy.
A membrane surrounding the egg, called the zona pellucida, has two major functions in fertilization. First, the zona pellucida contains sperm receptors that are specific for human sperm. Second, once penetrated by the sperm, the membrane becomes impermeable to penetration by other sperm.
Following penetration, a series of events set the stage for the first cell division. The single-cell embryo is called a zygote. Over the course of the next seven days, the human embryo undergoes multiple cell divisions in a process called mitosis. At the end of this transition period, the embryo becomes a mass of very organized cells, called a blastocyst (my emphasis). It's now believed that as women get older, this process of early embryo development is increasingly impaired due to diminishing egg quality.
Once the embryo reaches the blastocyst stage, approximately five to six days after fertilization, it hatches out of its zona pellucida and begins the process of implantation in the uterus. In nature, 50 percent of all fertilized eggs are lost before a woman's missed menses. In the in vitro fertilization (IVF) process as well, an embryo may begin to develop but not make it to the blastocyst stage — the first stage at which those cells destined to become the fetus separate from those that will become the placenta (my emphasis). The blastocyst may implant but not grow, or the blastocyst may grow but stop developing before the two-week time at which a pregnancy can be detected. The receptivity of the uterus and the health of the embryo are important for the implantation process. (end)
All the preceding is quite technical. I include it because the blastocyst is referred to as “embryo” even though it is just a microscopic ball of cells at that point. Success of the blastocyst continuing its development to create a placenta and then a fetus is not guaranteed.
All of this makes me wonder when the soul is instilled. The Church teaches that “every spiritual soul is created immediately by God - it is not ‘produced’ by the parents - and also that it is immortal: it does not perish when it separates from the body at death, and it will be reunited with the body at the final Resurrection.” So, this belief and teaching makes me wonder why God would create a soul in a blastocyst that has a high probability of perishing. What happens to those many lost souls? Perhaps the soul is instilled later. Obviously, we have no way of knowing.
Are blastocysts children? No, they are not, but they have the potential to become children if all goes well and they emerge from their mothers’ wombs as babies. As noted in a recent Boston Globe opinion piece “The Alabama lawsuit exposes the hypocrisy of IVF clinics,” IVF clinics refer to blastocysts as “future children” in their advertising and promotions. In this same opinion it was mentioned: “The vagueness about how to characterize what’s at stake or to assign responsibility has helped IVF operators and their lucrative ecosystem of egg freezing, egg provider, sperm donor, and third-party reproduction partners in several ways. First, it gives cover when catastrophes transpire, such as lab failures. Following a fertility clinic storage system power loss in 2018 [loss of 4,000 embryos and eggs], there was no mention of babies or future children. Instead, clinics relied on words like tissue and gametes to further dehumanize and minimize.”
IVF clinics are big business. Clearly, many non-fertile couples have had success in finally obtaining a child of their own genetic origin. Nevertheless, despite blastocysts’ uncertain fates (e.g., 50% of fertilized eggs don’t make it in nature, so it has been claimed) and perhaps being “soulless” [?], make me conclude that at the very least many “potential children” are held in years of frozen limbo without ever being implanted. It is all very unsettling and very likely an affront to our fervent belief that life begins at conception (fertilization) – for indeed it does. Deep freezing that life – much of it never to see the light of day – is haunting and chilling.
Deacon David Pierce
Comments
Post a Comment
Please THINK before you write!