The IVF blind spot
Atrios is hardly the first to notice that anti-stem cell research and anti-abortion people don't care about IVF. Which, if you think that anti-abortion is about saving lives, makes absolutely no sense.
But if anti-abortionism is about keeping women in their rightful place as mothers and nothing more, there's nothing wrong with expensive treatments to get a woman pregnant. And if Catholic women get it done, then more Catholics! Everyone wins!
I'm not against IVF, so I hope that doesn't come across. I'm not against babies or pregnancy (except for myself). But I am against efforts to create a system where women-are-wombs and nothing more.
posted by Amanda Marcotte at
14.5.04
3 Comments:
Yup, it's all about pregnancy.
5/14/2004
Atrios is mistaken, at least as far as the Catholic church is concerned. It is true that Catholic bishops do seem to make a lot more fuss about abortion and stem cell research but the Catholic church also forbids IVF and even artificial insemination with a husband's sperm. See the Catholic catechism paragraph 2377.
5/15/2004
It is true that the church forbids IVF, but what is at issue here is not actual theology but practical theology. And if they don't make a fuss about it, in a sense, it doesn't count. The death penalty is a good example.
5/15/2004
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