[James C. Bennett]

I am not sure what this has to do with IVF, but perhaps you'll explain further?

To be able to have genetic progeny, is the critical ingredient for evolution. IVF comes in right here, with regard to infertile couples.

No, that's not the whole question. In fact, the way you state it is tendentious, as if we shared an underlying assumption that infertile people possess a "right" to create laboratory progeny. It's like the homosexual activists saying that the state of Tennessee denies the "right" to gay marriage, or the socialists claiming the state is denying the "human right" of universal health insurance.

Marriage is one thing. Reproduction is an entirely different thing. One entity here does not require the other. One entity here is man-made, while the other is innate among all living species.

One entity here is not bothered by man-made laws. That entity isn't marriage.

[Mrs. Don-o]

I'm all for genetic progeny, as an end, but I object to the use of explorative or dehumanizing means.

Surely you and I must agree that the means must be moral as well as the end. For instance, genetic progeny can be, and are, gotten by many objectionable means, including rape, concubinage, surrogacy, fornication with a minor, prostitution, etc. We would concur (I suppose) that therefore it is reasonable to agree with the end, but not with the means.

I am convinced that IVF in an objectionable means. And why? Because, I would argue, a child has a natural right to be conceived in the loving embrace of his married parents, and any choice which deliberately deprives him of this natural and honorable beginning, does him dishonor.

It's a matter of respecting the child's natural birthright.

And because,secondly, human society itself ought to take carefully-considered and reasonable steps to curb human progeny from any form of abuse. That could include (notice I said "could" include) a public policy of discouraging abortion, sexual intercourse outside of marriage, IVF and human experimentation involving embryos, as well as encouraging marriage and the therapies needed to help married couples achieve their desired fertility.

You have not mentioned the moral and legal implications of the Tennssee Frozen Human Embryo case, which I cited twice. This case illustrates the one offensive public corollary of IFV: the commoditization of offspring.