To the editor:

I appreciated Ben Shapiro’s column “Finding moral clarity” in Monday’s edition, in which he pointed out the incestuous relationship between Hamas and Palestinian citizens. I would like to shine some clarifying light on the morality of another confusing topic in the news of late: In vitro fertilization, and its incestuous relationship with eugenics and abortion.

Shortly after his inauguration, President Donald Trump issued an executive order to form a commission to study ways to make IVF more affordable and more easily available. Some even referred to IVF as a pro-life process. We need to think about this.

Our nation has suffered from a moral schizophrenia regarding wanted and unwanted babies for a long time. Now, our schizophrenia has led us to a deeper, darker moral confusion, which has allowed the quest for a child to partner with the degradation, killing and storage of more than 1.5 million tiny boys and girls. As a nation, we must confront this question: Is a baby a gift of God to be received, or a product to which an adult has a right by any means necessary?

If the end can never justify the means is a foundational building block of morality, it is important to consider the means which IVF employs to reach the end of a healthy baby. Rather than seeking and attempting to remedy the underlying causes of infertility as restorative reproduction or natural procreative technology do, the multi-billion-dollar, unregulated IVF industry offers conveyor belt therapies that begin with risky injections of huge amounts of hormone to enable the mother to hyper-ovulate, producing up to a dozen eggs, which are then fertilized in a glass dash.

The new little gametes, each bearing the image of God, are allowed to develop to the point when they can be eugenically screened for sex and other preferred characteristics. Often three to five of these tiny sons or daughters are inserted into mom’s womb, while the rest of their siblings are frozen and stored or sold for research. If more than one or two little embryos implant successfully, there will be selective reduction — abortion — for the excess sons or daughters.

As a nation, we must consider whether creating a child through the means of IVF can be justified when truly moral, health alternatives with a much higher success rate for a small fraction of the cost for IVF are available. We have to decide: Is a baby a gift of God to be received or a product to which an adult has a right by any means necessary?

Sharon Conklin

Steubenville