Lately I've been reading more about IVF/Assisted Reproduction Technologies. Turns out genetic scientists are very worried that 'hot-wiring' human reproduction could be skipping important developmental steps.
There is a whole new field of genetics known as EPIgenetics which looks at how cells with exactly the same chromosomes know how to differentiate and become totally different cell-types. In particular these scientists are trying to warn that any one of the following steps....
1. stimulating ovaries artificially
2. extracting eggs from the body
3. fertilizing eggs in a petri dish
4. freezing the resulting embryos
5. thawing them
6. introducing them to an artificially prepared womb
.....might be causing embryos to miss out on important triggering events that naturally conceived children NATURALLY experience. (btw I should mention that the Church condemns IFV because
1. masturbation violates the 6th Commandment
2. the destruction of most of the embryos conceived violates the 5th Commandment
3. playing God violates the 1st Commandment.
many Catholics are not aware of this despite Pope Francis' warnings)
Research scientists lament that the whole American IVF industry is unregulated and largely unmonitored.
The children's health is not followed up in a way that might conclusively determine if there were longterm problems with any of the procedures. Basically, if a problem doesn't show up in the first year of life, IVF children are given a 'normal' label. This is despite research, carried out on lab mice, that indicates there are long-term complications for IVF conceived offspring as they reach adulthood.
It is possible to find these problems by searching internet articles. Youtube, however, is a totally different story. Any search on youtube will bring up smiling parents and reassuring doctors. "Nothing to see HERE! Move along!" or "Jump in, the water's just fine!!!". I suspect there is lots of money being spent to keep the public in the dark!
Below are links to medical articles indicating that
1. IVF offspring are already more likely to have birth defects
2. IVF 'healthy' teenage offspring are already suffering from poorer health, e.g. hypertension, and higher obesity rates
3. No one seems to want to look very closely
2004ncbi lack of surveillance
"Feb 27, 2004 - In this era of heightened involvement of institutional review boards in even minimally invasive research, it is surprising that there is a relative lack of such surveillance in developing methods for creating and culturing human embryos intended for birth"
2017 cambridge
"accumulating data suggests that individuals conceived by ART may also have an increased risk of ageing-related chronic metabolic disorders, the evidence to date is obtained from pre-clinical studies, or small human cohorts. Thus large scale, well-controlled epidemiological studies are necessary. "
"imprinting disorders are rare, an increased relative risk associated with ART (e.g. a 9-fold risk of BWS) (9) translates into a low absolute risk and is unlikely to be a major concern for prospective parents. "
2002 New England Journal of Medicine
"Infants conceived with use of intracytoplasmic sperm injection or in vitro fertilization have twice as high a risk of a major birth defect as naturally conceived infants."
"n vitro fertilization was introduced into practice with little formal evaluation of its effects on the health of the children conceived with this procedure."
2006 Netherlands study
"Conclusions: Our observations indicate that body fat composition in IVF children is disturbed. Follow-up of IVF children to monitor body fat pattern and potentially related health problems from adolescence into adulthood is of great importance."
Endocrinology Journal 2017 looks at 8-18 year olds
"Both systolic and diastolic blood
pressures were higher in IVF children (109 ⫾ 11 vs. 105 ⫾ 10 mm
Hg in controls, P ⬍ 0.001; and 61 ⫾ 7 vs.59⫾ 7mmHgin
controls, P ⬍ 0.001, respectively). Furthermore, IVF children
were 2.1 times more likely to be in the highest systolic blood
pressure quartile (ⱖ114.5 mm Hg) and 1.9 times more likely to
be in the highest diastolic blood pressure quartile (ⱖ65.5 mm
Hg) than controls [highest quartile vs. lowest three quartiles:
95% confidence interval (CI) 1.4, 3.3; 95% CI 1.2, 3.0, respec-
tively].
Cardiometabolic Differences in Children... (PDF Download Available). Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/5567593_Cardiometabolic_Differences_in_Children_Born_After_in_Vitro_Fertilization_Follow-Up_Study [accessed Apr 21 2018].
2002 New England Journal of Medicine
We found that there may be an excess occurrence of major cardiovascular, urogenital, chromosomal, and musculoskeletal defects associated with assisted conception. "
