By using the phrase commodifying children, I simply refer to the individual dehumanizing treatment of children as a means to fulfill self-serving desires. By implication, this view reflects an unbiblical understanding of children, namely as a gift from God sovereignly given to bless. In addition, by practical consequence, commodifying children manifests through the intentional harming and at many times, killing of children because their existence is no longer compatible with the goals and desires of the couple.
Specifically, the commodification of children is reflected in society’s vigorous pursuit to control certain aspects of family planning, specifically the timing of when to have children, how many children to have, and utilizing controversial means to ensure their children are healthy.
Regarding the timing of when to have children, financial concerns and career goals are common reasons for why women delay having children.1 Another insight into how our society seeks to control the timing of children is viewing reasons why abortions are obtained. A 2005 Guttmacher Institute study suggests financial considerations and interference with school or career as two common reasons amongst many for why women obtain abortions.2 Children are commonly viewed as an obstacle to one’s personal pursuits and are often valued only when they are conceived at a time convenient and desirous for the couple.
While IVF-ETa has allowed couples to have children according to their desired time, IVF-ET has also allowed for a control over the number of children a couple can have. It is now normative practice that most couples undergoing IVF would produce more children through IVF than they plan to transfer. Children not transferred are kept frozen until a decision is made whether it be discarding the child which is tantamount to murder, “donating” the child to science which nearly always results in the death of the child, or placing the child for adoption.
The reason why more children are created than transferred relates to the third aspect of control our society seeks to have over family planning – control over the health of our children. With the advent of pre-implantation genetic testing (PGT), the genetic makeup of children in their embryonic stage of development can be assessed to determine if there are certain genetic anomalies. Fertility clinics utilize PGT in an effort to provide a couple with a child free of certain genetic conditions. It is common practice that children with genetic anomalies would be discarded which constitutes a form of eugenics.
A society that seeks to control the timing, number, and health of children through child freezing, child experimentation, child abandonment, and child murder is a society that commodifies children, dehumanizing and devaluing them contrary to the expressed will of their Creator.
While some argue for acceptable uses of IVF-ET as a Christian, it is nonetheless vital for an interested couple to wrestle with whether their desire for children using IVF-ET technology and their actual practice of IVF-ET represents a manifestation of the sin of commodifying children.
Notes:
aIVF-ET refers to in-vitro fertilization-embryo transfer, the process of both fertilizing a woman’s egg(s) and transferring resulting embryos. When only IVF is used, I am only referring to the fertilization part of the process.
Foreknown and Created 