WASHINGTON, D.C. – Every child born from In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) has incalculable worth and value, and the IVF process has helped many hopeful couples overcome challenges to conceive children and build families. At the same time, the principled position that life begins at fertilization inevitably raises the core ethical dilemma with IVF – that frozen embryos are human beings and should be treated the same as children in the womb.

This concern regarding IVF is raised anew with President Donald Trump signing an executive order yesterday to explore ways to expand access to IVF for “loving and longing mothers and fathers to have children.” The order calls for policy recommendations to protect “reliable” IVF access and aggressively reduce out-of-pocket and health plan costs for such treatments.    

Yet, unlike European and other countries where IVF is strictly regulated, the executive order does not move to regulate the American IVF landscape. Currently, the $40 billion-dollar fertility industry in America undertakes many unregulated IVF practices. According to research, most IVF cycles create multiple embryos where only about seven percent result in live births and the rest are frozen in perpetuity, discarded, or either failed to implant or were lost during pregnancy. Additional studies show that children conceived through IVF have a higher risk of stillbirth, higher risk of infant mortality risks, and childhood cancers.

Regarding the freezing of embryos, numerous children have been born having been frozen for decades. In one case, a couple chose to adopt a frozen embryo that had been conceived in 1992 and kept frozen in liquid nitrogen at 200 degrees below zero. The process resulted in twins being born thirty years later in 2022 to parents who had been conceived themselves just four to five years earlier than the twins in the late 1980s.

This above situation illustrates what 96 percent of biologists said in a 2017 survey, that “human life begins at fertilization.” According to the American College of Pediatricians, the difference between an adult human and a fertilized human embryo is simply “one of form, not nature.”

The order to expand IVF in America without any proposals to regulate the process exacerbates the nation’s ethical dilemma. In a new white paper published by the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG), an organization that holds children conceived in the laboratory are no less human than those conceived in the womb, the group stated that the destruction of an embryo during the process of IVF is “unethical.” In the paper, AAPLOG notes what is currently happening today in IVF clinics and laboratories: 

• About 50 percent of fertilized human eggs fail to develop during IVF treatment.
• A range from 90 to 98 percent of embryos do not survive or are destroyed, discarded, or frozen for storage under usual IVF practices.
• “The embryos that progress at least 2-3 days are graded for quality and either transferred to the mother, frozen, or discarded.”
• There are an estimated 1.5 million embryos currently in freezers in the U.S. alone. 

Currently, only 11 states have laws regulating IVF facilities. While some IVF providers operate with the best of intentions, the unregulated environment at times fosters gross negligence in the industry, ranging from wrongful deaths due to freezer failures to “putting the wrong egg with the wrong sperm.” Other questionable practices include In Vitro Gametogenesis (IVG), “which involves custom-making human eggs and sperm in the laboratory from any cell in a person's body.” This process could enable same-sex couples to have babies that are genetically related to both partners, and even allow a single person to have a “uni-baby” developed from cells from just one individual.

According to a White House fact sheet, the general U.S. fertility rate is consistently dropping by two to three percent annually and many infertile couples are looking to IVF. With the cost of IVF cycles ranging from $12,000 to $25,000 where most couples need multiple cycles to get pregnant, President Trump’s order focuses investigating how to reduce these costs. The order notes that “just a handful of states” require IVF coverage in state insurance plans and that roughly a quarter of employers report their coverage of IVF to their employees. The executive order’s language implies a potential solution for lowering costs is to require insurance companies and employers to cover the cost of IVF treatments while completely ignoring the unethical practices of the industry or the principled position that human embryos are human beings.

Liberty Counsel Action Chairman Mat Staver said, “Every human life begins at conception and has immeasurable worth, and IVF has extended the utmost compassion to all couples who have overcome their challenges to conceive. Yet, America remains the unregulated ‘wild west’ of the fertility industry conceiving precious human lives but leaving many of them to go to waste. While IVF can still help many longing couples, expanding access without regulating the process is a step in the wrong direction. We need to fix the system with a more reasoned and scientific approach. Every unborn life, no matter their stage or location, is a child and they deserve the same dignity and protection as all children.”

Liberty Counsel Action is a 501(c)(4), nonprofit, grassroots organization advancing religious and civil liberties, the sanctity of human life, the family, limited and responsible government, national security, and support for Israel in Washington D.C. and across America.