Issue 3 In This Issue >>> Spring 2019
̶ Gene-Edited Babies and the Runaway Train of IVF (by Father Pacholczyk) ̶ Our Mission in Action ̶ On the Nightstand ̶ Who’s Who in the IVF Facility ̶ Embryology 101: Morula ̶ Words to Watch
News and information about the youngest human beings Brought to you by Sacred Heart Guardians and Shelter tiny sparks
Where to Find Us >>> Like us on Facebook (@sacredheartguardians) From the Director Visit www.sacredheartguardians.org Email [email protected] Believing without seeing Call 612-578-0377 Mail 3432 Denmark Avenue #253, Like many of you, I recently saw Visible differences alone make it harder Eagan, MN 55123 Unplanned. I hope Abby’s experience to emotionally connect with a human continues to convert hearts and minds being 1 day into gestation compared to everywhere, most especially of those who someone 13 weeks along. The fact that work in the abortion industry. he or she is living in a petri dish rather than travelling down a fallopian tube Abby’s conversion was brought about by doesn’t help either. what she witnessed first-hand, with her own eyes. Conceptual knowledge and the Most people never see a living embryo pleas of her loved ones weren’t enough. with their own eyes, or find themselves in an sharingelevator with an aelevator canister of with a Itwas was only only when when she she saw saw a aliving living baby “onWhat an She cryopreservedcanister of people. cryopreserved As such, people. I am babyultrasound on an monitor, ultrasound her own monitor, hand hoveringSaw continuallyAs such, amazed I am continually by the good amazed-willed herjust inchesown above hand it, hovering that she woke just up toChanged the and gracedby the- filled good supporters-willed and of gracedSHG’s- incheshorrific above reality it, that of abortion. she woke Sheup sawEverything the ” workfilled who just,supporters “get it.” of SHG’s work toresemblance the horrific toreality a baby. of abortion. She saw it move Unplanned who just, “get it.” It took me a lot Sheaway saw from the pain.resemblance She saw to the a violence of Howprocuredbaby. differently She abortion saw wouldit. move we react away in pain. longer. What helps me remember the She saw the violence of procured abortion. to Abby’s story if the person embryos’ humanity is prayer. Please Sanctuary of Christ the King. Almada, Portugal. How differently would we react to Abby’s continue praying for the people living beingHow different aborted lywas might barely someone react if the Sacred Heart Guardians and Shelter (SHG) is a story if the person being aborted was in lab dishes and cryo-storage. I hope visible,person beingeven withaborted powerful was too lab young to yet 501(c)(3) charitable organization incorporated in barely visible, even with powerful lab the embryos who passed away can and equipment?look anything Or if like it didn’t’ a child? look W hat if its Minnesota. Our mission is to provide corporal and equipment? Or if it didn’t’ look like a will pray for us too. likedeath a tookchild? place And witho whatut if actualits bloodshed? spiritual care for the youngest, smallest members child? And what if its death took place deathWhat tookif it wereplace abortedwithout beforeactual arriving in of our human family. Our activities include embryo without actual bloodshed? What if she bloodshed?the womb? WhatAnd, if what she ifwere the reason for a remains burial, education, and prayer. All activities were aborted before arriving in the Sincerely, abortedwomb?“pre-corporal before aborarrivingtion” in ( mythe word, not a are carried out in faithfulness to the teachings of Laura Elm womb? scientific term) was a poor lab grade? the Magisterium of the Roman Catholic Church. Founder, Executive Director A chromosome abnormality? Gender?
Please continue to pray for the people
Gene-Edited Babies and the Runaway Train of IVF by Father Tad Pacholczyk. Making Sense of Bioethics. December 2018.
In November 2018, a Chinese scientist The answer to these questions will, in moreover, experience double the rate of named He Jankui (known to his associates fact, be linked to whether we understand birth defects of regularly conceived as “JK”) claimed that he had successfully IVF to be ethical or not — JK is right to children. produced the world’s first gene-edited draw the parallel. If we conclude that IVF is Over the years, these kinds of concerns human babies using “gene surgery.” The something good and ethically acceptable, have been mostly glossed over or ignored twin girls, he said, were born somewhere in we end up granting the principle that it is — we’ve grown accustomed to frozen China with a modified gene that makes OK to engage in very harmful and orphanages, and to the high toll involved in them immune to infection from HIV, the damaging actions as long as we have a good the process of assuring that a few of our virus that causes AIDS. A special DNA end or purpose in mind. Although IVF embryonic children survive and splicing technique called CRISPR/ Cas 9 involves a litany of grave harms, like the successfully implant. We downplay the risk was used when they were embryos to make engendering of human beings in of birth defects. Our insensitivity and the edits. In a series of short videos posted laboratories and the freezing or destruction desires have trumped a clear sense of ethics. on YouTube, JK offers an explanation of, of embryos, if our intention is to help others As we face the daunting question of and justification for, what he did. He fulfill their desire to have a baby, it must be editing human embryos, we run up against reminds his viewers that when scientists OK. By this same logic, gene editing of our the same temptation. Editing our embryonic first began doing in vitro fertilization (IVF) children will also be considered acceptable children to be free of a particular disease in 1978, a number of ethical concerns were as long as our intentions are good and we’re requires numerous embryos to be raised, but those mostly subsided over time: trying to help others, even if we’re actually simultaneously created (or thawed out), “The media hyped panic about Louise causing serious harms along the way. treated as “products” and subjected to Brown’s birth as the first IVF baby. But for genetic “treatments,” with many of them forty years, regulations and morals have perishing during the experiment, in order developed together with IVF, ensuring only that a few of them might survive and develop without the disease. Editing our therapeutic applications to help more than 8 million children come into this world. Gene embryonic children may also involve risks surgery is another IVF advancement.” to them that we will only understand later when they grow up. Is it ever proper to In another video, he puts it this way: experiment on our own offspring? “Look back to the 1970s with Louise Moreover, gene editing in embryos Brown. The same fears and criticisms then introduces changes that will be passed into are repeated now. Yet, IVF unquestionably the human gene pool, establishing has benefited families. There will be no permanent and irrevocable changes to our Adding up the grave harms from IVF question about the morality of gene surgery own humanity. How does one adequately gives us a long list: IVF turns procreation in 20 to 30 years.” evaluate the risks of such changes? into “production.” It dehumanizes JK’s strong conclusion leads us to ask embryonic children, treating them as The fact remains that we’ve been willing whether the general sense of revulsion that objects to be frozen, manipulated, to tolerate an abundance of human carnage up to this point with IVF, and one of the hasEmbryology arisen towards 101his gene>>>-editing work is abandoned or destroyed. Since the practice merely alarmist and shortsighted. Are began in 1978, millions of embryos have great tragedies of our age has been our tone peopleScience failing consistently to grasp demonstratesthe importance when and become warehoused in liquid nitrogen, deafness to the evils of IVF. JK argues that proprietythe life of awhat new he human is doing? being Is begins:he a at abandoned in frozen “orphanages.” Millions we are similarly poised to accept the the onset of fertilization (i.e., when the pioneer ushering in a new age of more have been outright discarded as production of gene-edited babies as yet membranes of the egg and sperm fuse). another variation on the theme. Will his enlightenmentThe “moment where of conception” mankind will is the be able biomedical waste. Instead of “loving our brazen instrumentalization of human beings to secondmake use it takes of the for powers this fusion of science to occur, to children into being” through the one-flesh achieveand when good the ends? new Ororganism should inhis its gene union of husband and wife, IVF mass- call forth gasps of disbelief, serious editingunicellular work beform condemned – the zygote and – JK is created.branded produces children in clinics, assembly-line reflection and action, or only a few more as a rogue scientist violating significant style, under the impetus of market passing yawns? moral boundaries? capitalism. Children born by IVF, moreover, experience double the rate of Reprintedquestions with will, permission. in fact, be linkedRev. Tadeusz to Pacholczyk, Ph.D. earned his doctorate in neuroscience from Yale and did post-doctoral work at birth defects of regularly conceived whetherHarvard. we He understand is a priest IVF of the to diocesebe ethical of orFall River, MA, and serves as the Director of Education at The National Catholic Bioethics children. notCenter — JK in isPhiladelphia. right to draw See the
Our Mission in Action Embryo Remains Burial >>> On February 2, 2019, the remains of 25 embryos were laid to rest at Resurrection Cemetery (Mendota Heights, MN). To-date, SHG has facilitated burial for the remains of 55 embryos who died in IVF laboratories.
These remains were buried as a result of SHG’s outreach to IVF facilities. SHG’s outreach asks the facilities to allow SHG to bury the remains as a dignified alternative to the industry’s typical practice of waste disposal.
SHG’s most recent IVF facility outreach was issued in March 2019, and phone-call follow-up is in process. The postcard was sent to In the words of two embryologists: physicians, embryologists and nurses employed at the more than > “I get vested in patients and their outcomes, so I feel terrible 450 fertility clinics across the country (see “Who’s Who in the IVF in the cases where it doesn’t work out and thrilled when it does.” https://www.coopergenomics.com/blog/during- Facility” for descriptions of key IVF personnel). ivf/embryologist-interview/
The theme of this outreach, “Because you care for all of them,” > “There’s a lot of responsibility and a lot of excitement points to the procedural and technical care delivered to both adults because you hope that one day it’ll (i.e., the embryo) be and embryos at an IVF facility, while appealing to the staff’s someone special, and obviously, someone very special to the feelings of compassion and hope. family.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-agjp3zM5s0
“I get vested in patients and their outcomes, so I feel terrible in Who’s Who in thethe IVFcases Facility?where it doesn’t work out and thrilled when it In the Center for Diseasedoes.” Control (https://www.coopergenomics.com/blog/during (CDC)’s most recent ART Fertility Clinic Success- Rate report, 463 clinics ivf/embryologistreported IVF cycles-interview/) (www.cdc.gov/art/artdata/ ). Many of these clinics have multiple office locations, with the clinic and embryology lab generally operating as“There’s different a businesslot of responsibility entities. and a lot of excitement because you hope that one day it’ll (that is, the embryo) be someone Reproductive Endocrinologist. An obstetrician/gynecologist (OB/GYN) special, and obviously, someone very special to the family.” physician who has completed a three-year fellowship in endocrine disorders related (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-agjp3zM5s0). to the reproductive system. He or she may use surgery, medicine, or procedures On the Nightstand (such as IVF) to treat infertility. Enhance your understanding of issues pertaining Embryologist. “Embryology practitioners are individuals who create human to early human life issues. For help accessing these works, visit www.sacredheartguardians.org. embryos in an Embryology Facility using In Vitro Fertilization… Embryologists provide care for embryos until they are about a week old. At the end of the process, Embryo: A Defense of Human Life. Robert P. embryologists select embryos that will be transferred into the woman's uterus or George, Christopher Tollefsen. Doubleday. frozen for future transfers. Embryologists also may perform embryo biopsies, where 2008. a sample is taken to determine whether the embryo is chromosomally normal. Embryologists also determine which embryos are viable, and which have became Instruction Dignitas Personae On Certain arrested in development and no longer have a potential to become a baby after Bioethical Questions. Congregation for the transfer into the uterus.” (www.embcol.org) Doctrine of the Faith. Roman Curia. 2008. Various professional levels of clinical embryologists at an IVF facility include: On Conscience. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. o Lab Directors (PhD) provide technical, quality, and research-based leadership. The National Catholic Bioethics Center and o Lab Supervisors (MS) oversee and coordinate the daily operations. Ignatius Press. 2006. IVF Nurse Coordinator. This fertility nurse takes the client through each step of the IVF process and may be responsible for coordinating procedures, providing patient education, and ordering fertility drugs.
Words to Watch Some terms that appear in Embryology 101 >>> Morula discussions about early Latin, morula = mulberry. An early stage in post-fertilization human human life may give you development when cells divide rapidly, producing a solid mass of pause, and hopefully the cells (12-15 cells) with a "mulberry" appearance.1 motivation to ask, “What Morula stage of development occurs during the first week exactly does that mean?” following fertilization (after zygote and before blastocyst stages) Family Balancing. Also known as Gender Selection. For embryos created with IVF, the morula stage is when the In conjunction with IVF, gender can be selected by utilizing earliest prenatal diagnostic tests can be carried out. By removing a Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD), a technology that single cell and carrying out genetic diagnosis and screening on its DNA, genetic diseases, chromosomal disorders and sex can be involves testing the chromosomal make-up of an embryo. Once identified. the test results are known, only the embryo(s) of the desired gender are returned to the patient’s uterus. 1Hill, M.A. Embryology Glossary of terms. https://embryology.med.unsw.edu.au/embryology Consider: What happens to the embryos not selected?
Want to do more? Inside this Issue >>>
Invite SHG to speak at your parish, respect life, or other interest group. Our Mission in Action: Education is our mission and is provided at no cost. > Clinic Outreach, March ‘19 Father Tad Pacholczyk: Donate through our website or mail your gift (payable to Sacred Heart > Gene-Edited Babies and the Guardians and Shelter) to 3432 Denmark Avenue #253 Eagan, MN 55123. Runaway Train of IVF Make a prayer request. We take prayers before the Blessed Sacrament On the Nightstand: every Friday. Visit us at www.sacredheartguardians.org/services/prayer and > Recommended readings let us know how we can pray for you or someone you care about.
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