Thank goodness you don't live in Malta...

If you ever think there’s a lack of sensitivity towards infertility, you should perhaps be grateful that you don’t happen to live in Malta.  There a political debate about regulation for IVF has become increasingly heated with the Church issuing a pastoral letter describing IVF as “morally wrong” and encouraging couples “not to concede to the temptation of taking easy solutions” by having IVF.

The Catholic church has never supported IVF, but such outright condemnation is a terrible blow to religious people with fertility problems.  It’s hard enough not to be able to have a baby anyway, without being told that opting for the medical treatment that could help would be conceding to temptation - it seems to me to be a particularly cruel line in emotional blackmail.  What's more, I don't think anyone who'd had any personal experience of fertility treatment would describe IVF as an "easy" solution.  It's not as if there are any effective alternatives either...

For anyone who has had treatment, the pastoral letter allows that their offspring are apparently "still the children of God, even if the methods through which they were conceived go against Church teachings and against human dignity".  It seems incredible that such a line could be written in 2012, and after initially feeling horrified at such sentiments, I was left with a sense of sadness that religious leaders could show themselves to be so lacking in empathy, understanding and human kindness.