Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield Bishop Thomas Paprocki reiterates the church’s IVF position during Friday discussion with Patrick Pfingsten on WMAY

During a Good Friday morning, pre-Easter phone interview on WMAY with Patrick Pfingsten, Springfield Diocese Bishop Thomas Paprocki discussed various topics, including the Catholic Church’s position concerning IVF, or In Vitro Fertilization.

After discussing why the Bishop thought Good Friday and Easter were such positive holidays, Paprocki was asked by morning show fill-in host Patrick Pfingsten to comment on the recent IVF ruling in Alabama and his and the church’s positions regarding the treatment.

“…Yes, thanks for asking about that, because that is a very misunderstood topic. I think – you know – people, even in the pro-life movement, would think that, well, in vitro fertilization is a good thing because you’re helping infertile couples to have children; the problem is not in the results, it’s in the means, you know, the end just does not justify the means.

And so, unfortunately, in vitro fertilization has a couple of problems with it. It’s for one, it separates procreation from the marital act. And so in vitro is from the Latin which means in a glass dish, so it’s it’s taking the whole process of conception out of the natural communion of man and wife and putting it in a laboratory, basically. And so that’s the first problem.

Secondly is, the process involves the creation of more fertilized embryos than are needed. And so usually they’re frozen. And so we have actually millions of these frozen embryos that people don’t know what to do with them. And so what the Alabama Supreme Court decided, I think it was correct decision, that human life begins at conception.

So this was a wrongful death suit, and some of the frozen embryos were actually destroyed. And so the parents brought a lawsuit, and they won. So the court is saying, Well, yes, this is human life from the moment of conception. Because otherwise, where do you draw the line? Where does human life begin? And that’s the clearest moment when it begins.

So, you know, in terms of people who are having difficulty having children, I mean, we, yes, we sympathize with them. And people have done that. I know, Catholics as well, who have done that, I think, perhaps not knowing what the Church teaches about that. And it’s not not sinful if you don’t know something is wrong. But I think that’s why it’s important for us to be educated about this…”

The Catholic Church has previously stated similarly in the past, despite that many members of the Catholic Church have conceived families in this way and that the science – and regulation of it – continues to evolve and progress.

You can listen to the entire interview between Patrick and Springfield Bishop Paprocki below.