Dr Stacy A. Trasancos, IVF Is Not the Way: The False Promises of Artificial Procreation, Sophia Institute Press, 2025.
Catholics should have babies. More babies is always a good thing. Therefore, in vitro fertilisation (IVF)—which makes lots of babies—is a good thing. Right?
I recently read this line of reasoning in an issue of my old Catholic school’s magazine.
A former student—who was being profiled in the magazine—said that her work in the IVF industry was completely consistent with her Catholic upbringing and principles.
And who can blame her? Did anyone ever teach her otherwise? I’m guessing not.
I’m infertile myself. Infertility is heartbreaking—but only as long as you let it break your heart.
I can strongly recommend the grace of God, asking him to stir up the gifts you received at Confirmation, and some acceptance and commitment therapy.
After this, you might soon realise that there are worse things than being infertile, either as a single person or part of a couple.
So what is the church’s position on all this? Is it cruel to deny all these prospective parents their longed-for baby?
Theologian Dr Stacy A. Trasancos will help you understand the whole thing a lot better. This book is soundly Catholic and explains from first principles why IVF and similar forms of technology are not the answer to infertility.
It would be a great read for the many people out there who have friends and relatives and acquaintances who can’t understand why the church doesn’t allow IVF.
It will teach you ways to understand and explain the church’s position in simple language, and it will also help you to understand it on a deeper level yourself.
Trasancos gives her readers a quick lesson in logic and logical argument, which might not sit well with everyone.
But I’d argue that it’s long overdue in a church where sentimentality has been allowed to overrule moral principles in the name of “being pastoral” for decades.
As with everything Catholic, we have to start with the Triune God and his gift to us of life and the ability to procreate with his help.
It’s so helpful to be reminded of our divine origin and our divine destiny. With eternity as your perspective, a lot of things suddenly don’t seem to hurt as painfully as they did before.
Then Trasancos takes us through an explanation of our dignity as human beings and persons with one-half of a reproductive system.
This includes what we owe to the persons out there walking round with the other half of the same system.
And of course, what we owe to the person who is going to be conceived—the longed-for “baby” who grows up to be an adult with ideally a long life ahead of them.
The key church documents that cover this problematic area are Donum Vitae (1987), Evangelium Vitae (1995), and Dignitas Personae (2008).
Trasancos also adds the Catechism and Laudato Si’ to the mix, where the late Pope Francis’ condemnation of our throw-away society can be extended to our throwaway children stored in freezers in more and more countries globally.
The third part of the book is especially good. It’s got real-life moral dilemmas with hard cases, which are exactly the kind of thing people dread the most. And yet, here they are.
And of course, the IVF process—which is hit-and-miss at best—produces more embryos than anyone can use. So what do we do with them?
This forms the final part of the book. Bonus points: there is an excellent section at the end on the practice of embryo adoption.
The church has not officially ruled on this practice yet (despite what you may have read elsewhere). Trasancos presents both sides of the argument with compassion and dignity.
It’s so hard to write about this stuff, but Trasancos does so with compassion and conviction.
No one has a right to have a child of their own body. But everyone has a divine vocation to fatherhood or motherhood.
In fact, this is a duty and an obligation—it’s a huge call, and you need courage to respond to it.
If you spend your life fighting this vocation—and you can; I meet these people quite often —you will make yourself and the people around you extremely unhappy.
Or you can broaden your idea of motherhood and fatherhood beyond the merely physical.
You could then grasp the whole of the opportunity that God is holding out to you. I promise you that you will not regret it—God is never outdone in generosity.
In the meantime, this book would be an asset to Catholic school and university libraries, seminary libraries, and to any Catholic adult formation program.
It would also be really helpful for anyone working directly with infertile people or couples preparing for marriage.
