‘Human Beings … Are Frozen, Some Are Destroyed’: Order on In Vitro Fertilization Renews Debate About Limits

When Donald Trump signed an executive order aimed at lowering costs for and reducing barriers to in vitro fertilization last month, that renewed the public debate over whether IVF as currently practiced is ethical in the first place. Some are celebrating the promise of IVF as a treatment for infertility while others are urging the administration to proceed with caution on fraught moral questions posed by the creation and destruction of human embryos outside the womb. 

The executive order directs the president’s staff to provide him with “a list of policy recommendations on protecting IVF access and aggressively reducing out-of-pocket and health plan costs for IVF treatment.”  

The order does not change federal law but directs the Domestic Policy Council to take the next steps toward Trump’s stated goal of expanding IVF access. 

Because in IVF, fertilization takes place outside the womb and more human embryos are created than can be implanted, Protestant theologian and ethics professor Andrew Walker said the process presents multiple layers of moral concerns.  

“As Christians, we believe every single human being, regardless of their state of development, is made in God’s image. And that means we have human beings that are frozen, some are destroyed, some are donated to medical research,” Walker said in a recent interview with Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council.  

Walker is a fellow with the Ethics and Public Policy Center and was instrumental in passing the Southern Baptist Convention’s resolution calling for restrictions on IVF in 2024. 

Traditional IVF treatments involve the collection of eggs and sperm from the parents, the fertilization of the eggs in a petri dish, three to five days of development there, then the implantation of the embryo(s) that survive into the uterus of the mother, according to the American Association of Pro-Life OBGYNs, or AAPLOG.  

“Supernumerary” embryos—those leftover embryos created but not selected for transfer to the uterus—are frozen for later use or discarded, according to AAPLOG. A 2020 study indicated that over 1.2 million embryos were in storage freezers at the time. Data is not available on how many were discarded.  

Some Christians feel that people of faith should embrace IVF as a gift from God. That’s according to Jeremiah Johnston, pastor of apologetics and cultural engagement at Prestonwood Baptist Church in Texas and a father of five through the IVF process.  

Johnston is also a member of the Southern Baptist Convention and wrote an op-ed in the Dallas Morning News last summer making what he says is a Christian case for IVF.  

“An embryo is not synonymous with a child,” Johnston said in his op-ed. He said he believed that “only when an embryo successfully attaches in a mother’s womb does a child begin its beautiful journey to soon living an independent life.”  

Johnston told The Daily Signal he is happy the executive order could provide better access to the medical treatment that helped his wife and him have children after years of struggling with infertility.  

OB-GYN and AAPLOG Director of Research Dr. Donna Harrison said her organization affirms that human life begins at fertilization, which occurs several days before the embryo attaches to the uterus. Policy, she said, should take this into account. 

“From the time of sperm-egg membrane fusion, you have a human being,” Harrison told The Daily Signal. “That’s where we all started. What has happened with the IVF industry is that the embryos are being treated as property.” 

Currently, the fate of supernumerary embryos varies from clinic to clinic and is often regulated under contract law as a property transfer, according to Harrison. 

Bioethicist Carter Snead is urging the Domestic Policy Council to proceed with caution, being careful not to create incentives for the destruction of human life as it wades into these policy questions. Snead is a fellow with the Ethics and Public Policy Center and the Charles E. Rice Professor of Law at the University of Notre Dame.  

“In the absence of any meaningful regulation of IVF as such, the industry has not policed itself sufficiently to earn subsidies from the American taxpayer or special treatment from the federal government,” he said, citing the widespread practice in the United States of sex selection, trait selection for nonmedical factors including IQ, and the buying and selling of embryos. “The IVF industry in America needs to get its own house in order before we give them a blank check and a federal mandate for access to IVF as essential health care.” 

“President Trump has said in a separate context—the abortion context—that he didn’t want the federal government supporting the destruction of human life,” Snead told The Daily Signal. “In seeking to increase access to IVF, the president’s team needs to be mindful of the risk of doing just that, since as practiced currently, IVF can involve discarding and killing embryonic human beings.”   

Dr. Katherine McKnight, a reproductive endocrinologist in Houston, Texas, said she is interested to see the outcome of the executive order, given the expense of IVF procedures. She said she believes the embryo is not necessarily a life until it implants in the uterus of the mother. 

“Access to care is the most important piece,” McKnight said. “It would be wonderful if a couple who was suffering from infertility were able to do [IVF] even if they didn’t have the means to pay out of pocket.” 

Prominent conservatives, including FOX & Friends co-host Rachel Campos-Duffy, have taken to social media calling on Trump and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to address the underlying causes of infertility rather than promoting IVF and supporting Big Pharma. 

“We’re always treating symptoms rather than the underlying root causes in this country,” Campos-Duffy said in an X post. 

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