Is there any solid scientific evidence of differences between IVF babies and those conceived normally? W.K.P., Toronto.

Dr. Patricia Baird, who is chairing the Royal Commission on New Reproductive Technologies, has quoted a number of studies on the subject in recent speeches. She has made the following observations: in Vitro-fertilization results in more multiple births; in the general population these are 1:100; in IVF they are 1:4.

Multiple births are more frequently premature. At 32 weeks in the normal population one per cent of births are premature; in IVF cases ten per cent are premature. Prematurity results in low birth-weight, the need for neo-natal care, the likelihood of chronic conditions later, and a greater prevalence of cerebral palsy, squint, and hearing problems. IVF babies have two to three times the average of still births, and deaths in early life.

Dr. Baird did not mention the articles in The Lancet which have suggested a connection between an increase of spina bifida and IVF.

At the Ontario A.G.M. you stressed that the term conception must always be understood as meaning fertilization. Can you explain this again?

Today it is a scientific fact, beyond dispute, that a new life begins at conception, when in the process of fertilization a spermatozoon and an ovum fuse to form a single cell, the zygote. If there were even any doubt this was dispelled by in vitro fertilization.

Is there any need, therefore, to insist on the fact that conception and fertilization are the same? In 1981, at a time when the United States was considering possible Human Life Amendments, many famous doctors, including Dr. Jerome Lejeune, thought it essential to stress the fact before a Senate Committee. Dr. Ratner explained why there was a need. He said that “gynecologists and social engineers” had redefined the beginning of life by “changing the definition from fertilization to implantation to accommodate the use of abortifacients for population control.” He asked: “Can we honestly make ourselves believe that we can redefine life to suit our own convenience?” and stressed that alleged contraceptives are really abortifacients: “they do not prevent a human life from beginning but destroy human life after it has begun.”

In 1965 the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology (which had been calling for abortion on demand throughout the 1960s) revised the meaning of conception to mean implantation. Implantation in the uterus takes place six to ten days after fertilization. The new human being in its first six to eight days after fertilization is called a “conceptus,” which is defined as “the product of conception.” What is implanted, therefore, the conceptus, was conceived a week or so before the College says “conception” occurs. Quod absurdum est.

The change in definition was made to allow for contraceptives and abortifacients. Dr. Ratner said that contemporary medical language “is designed to make lies sound beautiful and murder respectable.” Pro-life people need to be on guard.

Has any judge granted an interim injunction to prevent the killing of an unborn child since 1969? L.W., Hamilton.

I found the answer to this question, almost by accident, in David Dehler’s book The New Canadian Ethic: Kill Our Unborn Children. There are three decisions of Ontario Supreme Court judges to prevent unborn babies being killed: Mr. Justice Leiff in 1972, Mr. Justice Donohue in 1973, Mr. Justice Anderson in 1980. These cases are all in Ontario. Perhaps our readers know of other cases in other provinces.

David Dehler wrote that Mr. Justice Abraham Lieff – “a good Jewish judge” – was the first High Court Justice in Canada to grant an interim injunction to prevent the killing of an unborn child. In what he called “the outpourings of a grateful Christian lawyer to a good Jewish judge,” he wrote, “Let Me Live,” a cry of an unborn child. He finished:

“….For Christian Jew
Did bend to us to give
Us life. Another Jew
Did mend the law to let me live.”

Who were the first to believe that life begins at conception, not at quickening? M.P., Toronto.

I don’t know; but I can name two people who lived almost 2,000 years ago. Rabbi Judah, the Prince, believed life begins at conception, and he lived approximately around 200 A.D. Tertullian, one of the early Fathers of the Church, lived at about the same time and expressed the same opinion.