When we think of things that are frozen, we instantly think about ice cream or even preserved meat or fish. A new trend, however, is encouraging some women to freeze the most unlikely thing: their egg cells.
Leaders of pro-life groups are warning women against jumping into the trend of preserving their egg cells, saying this is a perversion of goodness and love that is the essence of marriage and reproduction.
In an interview with Life Site News, American Life League Executive Director Jim Sedlak, for instance, discouraged women from freezing their egg cells with hopes of using them in the future for in-vitro fertilization (IVF), which he described as "immoral and just wrong."
"IVF separates the two inseparable parts of licit sexual union — the procreative and the unitive. Obviously, with IVF there is no unitive aspect," Sedlak said.
Human Life International's (HLI) Dr. Joseph Meaney, meanwhile, said the trend of preserving egg cells not only preys on women's fears of remaining childless, but also gives them a "false sense of security."
"A legitimate desire to have children is being instrumentalised in a misleading way. The very procedure used to obtain the eggs can contribute to future infertility," Meaney explained.
The pro-life leaders also warned of the adverse effects of IVF on women's health. Meaney pointed out how IVF has a low success rate, especially for women over 40 years old, while Sedlak said that the procedure kills more babies than it delivers.
"IVF babies are screened and many are put to death before others are frozen. The process of unfreezing a living human being is fraught with problems and, in many cases, leads to their death," Sedlak said.
He further noted that babies delivered through IVF are more prone to health problems. He reminded young women that having a child is not like acquiring a commodity.
