No Really, It's Me, Not You...

I'm moving. Headed to Wordpress, changing the focus of the blog.

There are all sorts of reasons why, but just in case you're following this blog, feel free to pop on over to the new site and enjoy a little more diversity of topics. I'll still be throwing IVF issues out there, but it won't be the sole focus. It'll be more of a personal blog, and I think, more reflective of my personality.

Hugs.

- Michael

Innocent Until Defined Otherwise

I think I'm about to abandon this site and start something different, so I'm going to lay out another land mine just to see what happens...

I've been having some fun reading through all sorts of bioethical journal entries, religious debates, other moral relativistic types of sites, and well, I'll just admit it - baseball statistics. I came upon an interesting Time article quoting a Catholic ethicist, Daniel Callahan, as writing

"To say, for instance, that God forbids the taking of 'innocent' life while conceding — as I think we must — that it is left up to a man to define what an innocent life is, is to fail to see that the only possible meaning this rule can have is the meaning human beings choose to give it . . . To place the solution to these problems in the hands of God is to misjudge God's role and misuse human reason and freedom."

I can feel another onslaught of fire and brimstone coming, but are we capable of making judgments on our own moral absolutes with God as a guide as Potts seems to argue in this article, or do we surrender all rationality to a higher authority?

and...discuss...

Nancy

Lost my Mother one year ago today. Here's hoping they have dirty gin martini's and potato chips where you are, Mom. I love you.

Your LCS Primer

I've got Texas and Philly. Let's do this.

This Just In: You're All Going to Hell

Wooo boy! I happened across this tidy little gem recently - don't ask me how. But it is chock-full of handy advice for all you dastardly sinners out there doing IVF, courtesy of "Father Tad".

Here are a few for your enjoyment:

Even if IVF were done without making any extra embryos at all, this way of making babies would still be morally objectionable, because the procedure strikes at the very core and meaning of marital sexuality. It substitutes an act of laboratory manipulation for an act of bodily union between spouses. It turns procreation into production. IVF is really the flip-side of contraception: rather than trying to have sex without babies, we try to have babies without sex.

Now, I'm a kid who grew up Catholic, was confirmed Catholic, and am now a "recovering" Catholic. So believe me when I tell you that I spit my coffee half way across the room when I read this. Why? They spent EVERY OPPORTUNITY IN THE WORLD telling us how bad, bad, bad, sex was. Icky, icky, icky sex. Hell, hell, hell. Now, you really need to have it. Father Tad, what if I have sex with my wife, hot, steamy "bodily union" on the lab table and then just have the good doc sneak a little catheter up there and make an embryo transfer? Would that be ok?

There's more...

Regardless of how a baby comes into the world, whether by IVF, whether by adultery, by pre-marital sex, or even by cloning, that baby is always a gift and a blessing.

Why not just include rape, incest, and erector set fertilization?

In other words, babies, even when very much desired, should not be brought into the world by making use of disordered means such as adultery, pre-marital sex, IVF, or cloning. They should be brought into the world only within that intimate love-giving moment of the marital embrace.

I can't help but ask how Fr. Ted feels about how Jesus was brought into the world?

Children are entitled to come into being as the fruit of a singular parental love that is uniquely manifested in the spousal moment of bodily surrender to each other. Through the incredibly rich language of the parents' bodies, through their body to body contact, the new body of their child is engendered. In their one-flesh union, they enflesh new life. That intimate bodily embrace is a sacred action that only spouses may share, and it represents the unique and privileged locus

There is no way to describe the above as anything other than Catholic pornography. I'm sweating!

Folks at the Vatican really need to get out more.

Congrats to Robert G. Edwards, Nobel Prize Winner

The co-inventor of in-vitro fertilization finally is recognized by the Nobel folks. Congratulations to you, Dr. Edwards, and all you've helped directly and indirectly for the last 40 years.

Follow that link to see all of the responses people around the world have left. The one that particularly caught my eye? This:

"Congratulation for winning prize you deserve world is looking more number of Robert G. Edwards""
- varahalarao vadlapudi, Andhra University

Now, Varahalarao, it's all well and good to congratulate the man, but when you're talking about someone who had access to the resources in order to clone himself a billion times over, you really need to watch what you're suggesting here...











did I take this too far??? Probably...

Predicting blast embryo success

Interesting article from the BBC where Stanford researchers have developed a way to predict with greater accuracy which embryo's will be successful. In particular, this quote stood out to me:

"We've always thought of embryos as living or dying, but in reality we find that each cell in the embryo is making decisions autonomously."

So in theory, I should be able to have them choose the embryo that will feature a left handed kid with a plus fastball and wicked slider, right? I'm so doing a blast round again. Someone notify my wife...

Don't be funny

I just heard back from a publisher that looked at my manuscript and said that they found it entertaining and the subject matter was unique but they were worried, quote, "about the constant humorous narrative."

So here was my response.

Thank you for your quick feedback on the manuscript.

For your review, I've submitted a revised edition where I kick dogs every other chapter.

I hope this balances the tone of the book to your liking.

Best -

- Michael