{"id":2374445,"date":"2024-11-29T12:59:59","date_gmt":"2024-11-29T17:59:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/joy-shows-early-fears-about-moral-fallout-of-ivf-justified\/"},"modified":"2024-11-29T13:02:27","modified_gmt":"2024-11-29T18:02:27","slug":"joy-shows-early-fears-about-moral-fallout-of-ivf-justified","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/joy-shows-early-fears-about-moral-fallout-of-ivf-justified\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Joy\u2019 Shows Early Fears About Moral Fallout Of IVF Justified"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fjoy-shows-early-fears-about-moral-fallout-of-ivf-justified%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2374445&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The article discusses the impact of Louise Joy\u2063 Brown&#8217;s\u2062 birth \u200con \u2062July 25, 1978, as the first successful &#8220;test tube&#8221; baby \u2062conceived through \u200cin vitro \u2064fertilization (IVF). While\u2063 her arrival offered hope to those dealing with infertility, it \u200balso sparked ongoing moral and ethical debates. The Netflix period drama &#8220;JOY \u2013 The Birth of IVF&#8221; explores the\u2062 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/universities-dei-poison-will-kill-this-country-if-republicans-dont-intervene\/\" title=\"Universities&#039; DEI Poison Threatens Country, Needs Republican Intervention\">decade-long efforts<\/a> of key figures\u2062 like embryologist Jean Purdy, biologist Robert Edwards, and obstetrician Patrick Steptoe, while it also addresses the challenges and\u200b ethical dilemmas associated with IVF.<\/p>\n<p>The film attempts to highlight the \u2064skepticism surrounding the quest to overcome childlessness, framing it as resistance to \u2064scientific \u200cadvancement. However, it does not fully address the low success rates associated \u2062with IVF or the moral implications of their trials, which ultimately produced\u2063 only a handful of successful pregnancies. It highlights the\u2062 controversial link between\u2064 IVF and abortion, as\u2063 the characters navigate their personal \u2063and <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\">professional struggles amidst societal pressures<\/a> and \u200cethical concerns.<\/p>\n<p>While the accomplishments of IVF are notable, the narrative does not shy\u2062 away from the negative consequences, such as the treatment of women in the process and the fate of unused embryos. The article \u200cunderscores that, nearly half \u200ca century later, IVF\u200c has led to both significant advancements in reproductive technology and serious ethical discussions regarding its\u2062 implications for human life\u2063 and the\u200d commodification of reproduction. The \u200dcharacters in \u200cthe film grapple with\u200d the consequences\u200b of their groundbreaking work, highlighting \u2062the tension between scientific ambition and moral responsibility.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>When Louise Joy Brown became the first &ldquo;test tube&rdquo; baby to survive pregnancy and birth on July 25, 1978, the world had mixed feelings. On one hand, Brown&rsquo;s entry into the world via in vitro fertilization proved those with infertility diagnoses were not immediately limited to a life without biological children. On the other hand, Brown&rsquo;s conception and birth introduced a whole host of moral and ethical dilemmas that are still relevant today.<\/p>\n<p>Netflix&rsquo;s &ldquo;JOY &ndash; The Birth of IVF,&rdquo; a period drama, uses choppy storytelling to trace embryologist Jean Purdy, biologist Robert Edwards, and obstetrician Patrick Steptoe&rsquo;s decade-long attempt to &ldquo;make the impossible possible&rdquo; with the lab conception that ultimately led to Brown&rsquo;s existence.<strong> <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>While &ldquo;Joy&rdquo; attempts to grapple with some of the ethical hurdles facing IVF, the movie ultimately fails to fully explore the low rate of success (the trio ultimately experimented on 282 women but only yielded five pregnancies and two births) and moral hangups that came with the group&rsquo;s IVF trials. Instead, the film focuses on framing widespread skepticism about the quest to &ldquo;cure childlessness&rdquo; as opposition to scientific progress and &ldquo;reproductive care.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>There&rsquo;s no doubt that conceiving children in a petri dish was an incredible scientific and technological feat. The downsides of &ldquo;Frankensteining&rdquo; reproduction, however, were not lost on the public &mdash; even in the 1960s and 70s.<\/p>\n<p>The movie devotes a large portion of its run time to highlighting this response. Several, including Purdy&rsquo;s religious mom, are seen warning her offspring against &ldquo;playing God&rdquo; with men like Steptoe, whose foray into IVF was only possible thanks to his lengthy and <a href=\"https:\/\/time.com\/archive\/6735006\/patrick-steptoe-and-robert-edwards-brave-new-baby-doctors\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">profitable history<\/a> as an abortionist. She also threatened &mdash; and later made good on her promise &mdash; to ostracize Purdy due to her objections to the woman&rsquo;s involvement in developing IVF.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not performing abortions, Mum,&rdquo; Purdy, who struggles with endometriosis and learns she can&rsquo;t have children of her own after years of unprotected premarital sex without a pregnancy, said. &ldquo;And I&rsquo;m proud of what I&rsquo;m doing.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>When a morally convicted Purdy confronts a member of Steptoe&rsquo;s staff about the reasons they pursued IVF research, she learns what is still true today: IVF and abortion are inextricably linked in both practice <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/06\/20\/to-be-pro-life-politicians-must-stand-for-all-babies-from-conception-even-when-it-happens-in-a-lab\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">and<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/03\/05\/democrats-wont-settle-for-common-sense-restrictions-on-abortion-or-ivf\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">politics<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I thought we were here to make babies,&rdquo; Purdy pressed.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Well you&rsquo;re wrong,&rdquo; Steptoe&rsquo;s matron nurse replied. &ldquo;We are here to give women choice. Every choice. That&rsquo;s all that matters to me and that&rsquo;s all that should matter to you. So buck up.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Despite the group&rsquo;s best efforts to pump women, one of whom remarks she &ldquo;can&rsquo;t help but feel like cattle,&rdquo; full of the hormones necessary to prep their bodies for egg harvesting, they get nowhere. Frustrated by years of pushback and no successful pregnancies, Purdy opted to step away from the project and return home to care for her ailing mother. The other IVF researchers, without Purdy&rsquo;s participation, dropped their research shortly after.<\/p>\n<p>Purdy tried to use her time away to repair her relationship with her disapproving kin and church but eventually returned to the lab after her mother passed away. It was with that second wind that the scientists used what they learned to impregnate Lesley Brown with a baby conceived in a petri dish. Unmentioned are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wgbh\/americanexperience\/films\/babies\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">countless microscopic lives<\/a> lost to nearly a decade of experimentation.<\/p>\n<p>Politicians on both sides of the aisle claim supporting IVF is good because it helps couples conceive and boosts flailing birthrates. Big Fertility even frames biological participation in IVF via egg and sperm sales as a <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/08\/05\/when-sperm-and-eggs-are-monetized-human-existence-becomes-transactional\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">charitable act that helps people in need. <\/a><\/p>\n<p>The reality of the practice, however, is a million embryos destined to be<a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2023\/02\/02\/theres-only-one-way-for-the-1-million-embryos-stuck-in-frozen-orphanages-to-make-it-out-alive-adoption\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"> indefinitely stuck in cryogenic freezers<\/a> and millions more that, after suffering through&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/05\/07\/orchid-healths-genome-testing-promises-healthy-babies-but-delivers-morally-deplorable-eugenics\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">eugenics-like testing,<\/a> are destined to be discarded. Nearly 50 years after it became a reality, IVF has fueled the fertility industry&rsquo;s penchant for prioritizing <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2023\/08\/14\/its-time-to-stop-treating-assisted-reproductive-technology-as-a-quick-fix-for-infertility\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">profit over people<\/a>,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/03\/25\/what-if-we-can-heal-infertile-women-rather-than-turning-to-expensive-unethical-ivf-treatments-first\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">quick fixes<\/a>&nbsp;over <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/trump-announced-ivf-plan-because-pro-lifers-didnt-step-up\/\" title=\"Trump Announced IVF Plan Because Pro-Lifers Didn&#039;t Step Up\">long-term women&#038;rsquo<\/a>;s health solutions, and making&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/08\/05\/when-sperm-and-eggs-are-monetized-human-existence-becomes-transactional\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">human existence transactional<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The technological developments that led to lab conception may be responsible for the births of millions of children. Contrary to the movie&rsquo;s jubilant title, the IVF it celebrates has also led to the deaths of millions and wreaked physical and emotional consequences on men, women, and children across the globe.<\/p>\n<p>When Purdy, Edwards, and Steptoe were in the throes of their experiments, the press, clergy, and other scientists warned about the gateway IVF could serve for dehumanization.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;You&rsquo;re a scientist seemingly unengaged in the consequences of your work,&rdquo; the character playing the father of DNA science Dr. James Watson remarks in the movie. The real-life Watson was so sure that IVF&rsquo;s downsides outweighed the benefits that he told a congressional committee in 1974 that normalizing implanting test tube babies in women means <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.ph\/Lq7ez#selection-787.15-795.101\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">&ldquo;all hell will break loose, politically and morally, all over the world.&rdquo;<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;This is not about killing children. It is about making them,&rdquo; Edwards retorted in the movie debate with the Nobel Prize winner. Yet, it was in that same breath that Edwards claimed &ldquo;everyone who wants one deserves to have a child.&rdquo; <\/p>\n<p>Whether it is politically, scientifically, or artistically advantageous or not to acknowledge, IVF&rsquo;s roots lie in accommodating the desires of adults without regard for the commodification of children. Purdy, Edwards, and Steptoe&rsquo;s scientific development may have paved the way for millions of pregnancies and births, but it has also opened the door for horrors like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/11\/25\/magazine\/ivf-clinic-mixup.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">switching embryos at birth,<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2023\/06\/08\/popular-genetic-testing-pits-unborn-siblings-against-each-other-and-the-highest-scorer-gets-to-live\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">designer babies<\/a>,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2023\/06\/14\/california-bill-would-make-insurance-fund-unlimited-attempts-to-create-motherless-and-fatherless-children\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">motherless and fatherless children<\/a>, the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2023\/07\/22\/the-global-fertility-industry-seeks-to-erase-women-from-procreation-one-manufactured-egg-at-a-time\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">erasure of women&rsquo;s vital role in reproduction,<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/12\/14\/we-need-to-get-serious-about-meeting-advances-in-reproductive-tech-with-an-actionable-moral-framework\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">fraud<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Joy&rdquo; not only diminishes the earliest anxieties about those realities but seeks to mask them under a dramatized, one-sided version of a feel-good story. The birth of Brown, like any baby, is worth celebrating. But the truth about the means used to justify that end does not always elicit joy.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Jordan Boyd is a staff writer at The Federalist and producer of The Federalist Radio Hour. Her work has also been featured in The Daily Wire, Fox News, and RealClearPolitics. Jordan graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow her on X @jordanboydtx.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Louise Joy Brown&#8217;s birth as the first &#8220;test tube&#8221; baby sparked mixed reactions globally<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":490,"featured_media":2374446,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Screenshot-2024-11-26-at-10.13.01%E2%80%AFAM-e1732653736450-1024x577.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[4381,32468,45878],"class_list":["post-2374445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-ethics","tag-ivf","tag-moral-implications"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Screenshot-2024-11-26-at-10.13.01%E2%80%AFAM-e1732653736450-1024x577.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2374445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/490"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2374445"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2374445\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2374453,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2374445\/revisions\/2374453"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2374446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2374445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2374445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2374445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}