As Christians, we must oppose IVG development and reject any pathway to its clinical use, but we must also teach why God’s design for procreation is not arbitrary nor utilitarian but for our own good and for God’s glory.
Move over IVF. IVG is now the new frontier in the brave new world of reproductive technology. What is it, and what does it do? And how should we think about this?
Scientists are now creating eggs and sperm in laboratories from skin cells. This technology — known officially as in vitro gametogenesis or IVG — moves us one step further from God’s design for human procreation.
IVG is the laboratory creation of human eggs and sperm from stem cells. Scientists have produced functional eggs and sperm in mice, resulting in live births. In humans, researchers have generated lab-created eggs that can be fertilized, though they remain genetically unstable.
So what’s the difference between IVF and IVG? IVF uses eggs and sperm produced in a man and woman’s bodies. IVG manufactures the gametes themselves in the lab. While IVF requires both a man and a woman, IVG severs procreation completely from male and female.
IVG is not about helping infertile married couples, as even IVF has been utilized for surrogacy adoptions of same-sex couples. What IVG seeks to do is enable asexual reproduction, same-sex, and multi-parent reproduction, and large-scale embryo creation and selection — basically create designer babies.
This is a complete violation of God’s design for marriage, children, the dignity of human life and the Imago Dei.
First, IVG enables reproductive scenarios that fundamentally reject God’s design for the family.
Secular bioethicists have openly discussed IVG’s envisioned uses: Same-sex reproduction where two men could generate eggs from one partner’s cells and sperm from the other. Solo reproduction where a single person is both genetic mother and father. Or multi-parent genetics where a child has three or more genetic parents. This “throuple” reproduction is already being explored with IVG.
The Bible is clear about God’s design for male and female, marriage, and children who are the natural offspring of husband and wife. IVG is attractive precisely because it overrides what God requires in creating children. IVG is an intentional rejection of God’s design.
Second, IVG encourages mass embryo destruction through “embryo farming.”
Because IVG can manufacture unlimited eggs from skin cells, it pairs naturally with embryonic polygenic screening, testing large batches of embryos for disease risk and preferred traits, then discarding the rest. IVG furthers the same embryo destruction we see with IVF, this time removing the need for male and female parents.
Emma Waters of the Heritage Foundation warns that this technology “subverts God’s good design for human procreation and undermines the inherent worth and dignity of each child.” IVG normalizes “embryo farming” — many human lives are destroyed in a lab. This isn’t a side-effect; it’s built into the IVG model.
From a pro-life perspective grounded in Scripture, every embryo bears the image of God at conception. With these technologies and in both the case of IVF and IVG, a child is no longer begotten through the one-flesh union of husband and wife but manufactured. IVG takes that process even further. Children become commercial products of engineering rather than miraculous gifts from the Lord.
Third, IVG replaces healing with redesigning, turning children into projects rather than persons.
There is a profound moral difference between healing infertility through surgery or hormone treatment and replacing procreation entirely with lab-engineered gametes. Medical healing is one thing. Engineering humanity from a lab is another.
IVG doesn’t heal a broken reproductive system, it bypasses it entirely. Combined with polygenic screening, IVG moves us from caring for the child we’re given to producing the child we choose. Children become commodities, like lab-grown diamonds, rather than gifts. It eliminates marriage and family while normalizing the eugenic mindset that any child can be discarded for any reason.
Finally, IVG deepens exploitation of human bodies.
Because IVG depends on high-end laboratories and surrogates, wealthy same-sex couples and throuples can purchase this technology. That baby belongs to whoever paid to have him created in a lab. Desperate and poor women can be paid to rent their wombs for nine months.
This follows the same concerns that Christian conservatives have raised about surrogacy and egg markets with IVF. IVG expands that much further. It’s clear that the American public needs an education in what it means to be created in the image of God.
So how should Christians respond?
We must speak the truth with clarity and conviction. IVG is not compassionate care for the infertile. Infertility is real grief and affliction that married couples’ experience. Scripture recognizes this in the stories of Sarah, the mother of Isaac; Hannah, the mother of Samuel; and Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist. The Church should support and counsel married couples toward adoption and morally permissible restorative reproductive health.
Not every deep longing for children can or should be met by every technological means. Christians are bound by God’s Word, not by boundless technology.
IVG severs procreation from the God-ordained one-flesh union. It destroys human embryos created in God’s image. It enables structures that reject God’s design for marriage and family. It normalizes eugenic selection and commodifies human life.
As Christians, we must oppose IVG development and reject any pathway to its clinical use. We must teach why God’s design for procreation is not arbitrary but for our good and for God’s glory.
The same God who created male and female wants us to be fruitful and multiply. God’s design for human flourishing includes children. God’s purpose is not a utilitarian system waiting for technology to supplant it. God’s design is from the beginning until the end of time, for our ultimate good, and for His unmistakable glory.
Christians cannot afford to be silent on this issue. We must recover our voice of sanity, conviction, and critical thinking. We must have courage. This brave new world is in need of rescue by the old. Our children and grandchildren will thank us.
This is a lightly edited transcript of the “Here’s the Point” podcast by Ryan Helfenbein, executive director of the Standing for Freedom Center, which can be seen below.
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