A new study from Fertility and Sterility found that an estimated 10 to 13 million babies were born from in vitro fertilization (IVF) “in the 40 years since the world’s first IVF infant was born in 1978,” according to reporting from Medical Express. While on the surface this may seem like a celebratory number, this study only paints half the picture. The other half contains tragedy.    

Every Life is indeed precious, no matter how they were conceived and in what circumstances. However, for every Life born from in vitro fertilization (IVF), some lives fail to implant, are discarded for eugenic reasons, or are trashed because the parents cannot afford to keep them frozen. And then, there are all the embryonic children still waiting in a freezer.   

Students for Life of America (SFLA) has expressed ethical concerns about the predatory nature of the IVF industry and its business practices and safety protocols.   

In a previous article, SFLA Vice President of Media and Policy Kristi Hamrick pointed out the factual basis for these concerns that pro-life and pro-choice individuals alike should take into consideration.   

“Because of the cost of IVF, and the fact that ‘the vast majority of embryos (80%) produced during IVF and chosen for transfer still fail to implant or to result in a liveborn infant,’ IVF businesses will attempt to create human embryos in volume,” wrote Hamrick. “But those who are not selected may be frozen up to 10 years or ‘discarded or donated, either to others wanting to have children or to medical science,’ reports the Washington Post.”    

The Catholic News Agency (CNA) only bolstered this point and reported more die from IVF than abortion, citing the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimate of “more than 238,000 patients attempted IVF in 2021.”  

CNA did the math: “If clinics created between seven and eight embryos for every patient, that would yield about 1.6 million to 1.9 million over a year. Despite these high numbers, fewer than 100,000 embryos were brought to term, which suggests that somewhere between 1.5 million and 1.8 million embryos created through IVF were never born.”  

Add to that this report from MEDPAGE TODAY: “99% of the time, when people are done with family building and have no need for any remaining embryos, they opt to have them discarded.” 

And then, there’s the lack of safety guards and reported negligence that has resulted in horrifying consequences.   

Consider this ghastly story from Newport, California, where an IVF worker reportedly placed the embryonic children in hydrogen peroxide instead of a sterile solution, killing the children. It gets worse – they reportedly implanted the dead embryonic children anyway.    

A few incidents that you may have missed include:    

• A couple sued a fertility clinic for allegedly using the wrong sperm.     

• Another couple from New Jersey claimed another fertility clinic used the wrong sperm.     

• A fertility doctor used the wrong sperm or even his own sperm and agreed to a $13 million settlement with families.     

• A fertility clinic mixed up sperm in a botched IVF treatment and accused the wife of cheating on her husband.     

• A fertility doctor used his own sperm and has 1,000 kids– an unthinkable reality for these children.     

These are the examples that we know of – who knows how many more untold stories exist from the IVF industry? Note to the media: if you’re going to tell a story about IVF, paint the whole picture.   

READ NEXT: What to Expect When You’re Expecting to Talk about Invitro Fertilization (IVF)