Why is IVF wrong? Fr. Josh Johnson and Dr. Sarah Denny Lorio broach the topic of in vitro fertilization (IVF). They look at the ethics of this subject with a human dignity lens while being sensitive to how deep this cross is for many of us.
Snippet from the Show
Just because certain medical treatments are technologically possible, does not dictate whether or not they are morally illicit or permissible.
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Shownotes
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Glory Story (3:15)
Listener Question (7:48)
Why is IVF wrong? I know a lot of couples who have tried to have kids naturally but have not been able to conceive. They want children so badly which seems like a good thing. Why can’t these couples utilize IVF for something good like having children?
-Tessa
Prayer (27:07)
John 17:24-26
24 Father, they are your gift to me. I wish that where I am they also may be with me, that they may see my glory that you gave me, because you loved me before the foundation of the world. 25 Righteous Father, the world also does not know you, but I know you, and they know that you sent me. 26 I made known to them your name and I will make it known, that the love with which you loved me may be in them and I in them.”
About Dr. Sarah Denny Lorio
Dr. Sarah Denny Lorio holds a PhD in Bioethics from the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum in Rome, and her doctoral research argued for a “third way” of sex education that teaches young people fertility awareness-based methods both as preventive medicine and as proximate vocation preparation. Throughout the last 12 years, Sarah has taught at both the university and high school levels: working as an ethics professor at Loyola University in New Orleans, teaching and coaching young women at Archbishop Chapelle High School in New Orleans, and speaking and leading international trips for college students as a campus minister at Louisiana State University. Trained in two methods of fertility awareness–Creighton Model FertilityCare System (2013) and FEMM (2024)–her passion is to empower women through a deeper knowledge of the great gift and beauty of their bodies and sexuality. In her work, she consistently seeks to integrate the demands of medicine with the dignity of womanhood and highlights the essential role of human freedom in the education of young women. She is in the process both of developing a high school curriculum that brings light to these realities as well as creating similar resources for parents. She currently lives in New Orleans, LA, and works remotely as a Personal Consultations Fellow with the National Catholic Bioethics Center.
You can find out more on her website: What Women Are.
Resources
- Submit your questions and feedback to Fr. Josh by filling out a form at www.ascensionpress.com/askfatherjosh
- Broken and Blessed by Fr. Josh Johnson
- Pocket Guide to Adoration by Fr. Josh Johnson
- Pocket Guide to Reconciliation by Fr. Josh Johnson & Fr. Mike Schmitz
- Ascension is pleased to offer our new and improved online bible study programs and sacramental preparation programs digitally to help you minister with flexibility. Go to ascensionpress.com to view all our offerings.
Meet Fr. Josh Johnson
While Fr. Josh was raised Catholic, he didn’t like the Church growing up. Then, one day in adoration, he fell in love with Jesus and received the call to become a priest.
Now, Fr. Josh is the Vocations Director of the Diocese of Baton Rouge in Louisiana. He is a presenter in four of Ascension’s programs: Altaration, YOU: Life, Love, and the Theology of the Body, The 99, and Connected: Catholic Social Teaching for This Generation, as well as the author of Broken and Blessed: An Invitation to My Generation, Pocket Guide to Adoration, and co-author of Pocket Guide to Reconciliation.
