Babies conceived through IVF are at higher risk for disorders. For my libertarian friends who read this blog, please notice the Hayekian strain to this issue. Not only are there unintended consequences of human action, as F.A. Hayek warned. First, look at the physical problems of IVF, that no one anticipated:
Scientists have discovered that the DNA of babies conceived through IVF differs from that of other children, putting them at greater risk of diseases such as diabetes and obesity later in life. The new research could explain why IVF babies tend to be at higher risk of low birth weight, defects and rare metabolic disorders. The changes are not in the genes themselves but in the mechanism that switches them on and off, the study of which is known as epigenetics.
There are also unknowable consequences: that is, we don’t even know what we don’t know. Therefore, when we think we can reconstruct a whole complex social reality, we are in fact playing with forces we can’t even articulate or understand. Some of these consequences go beyond the issues faced by the particular parents who conceived this child. After all, some of my libertarian friends who are enthusiastic for artificial reproductive technology might argue that the parents created the child with these problems. As long as they were informed of the risks and willingly took the risks, and were willing to bear the costs privately, without imposing on anyone else, then no big deal.
But, there may be consequences to other people, operating through the gene pool, in ways we can’t yet understand.
There is a possibility that such changes could be transmitted to the children of IVF babies, meaning they could spread through the human gene pool….. In their findings, published in the Human Molecular Genetics journal, Sapienza and his colleagues took blood samples from the placenta and umbilical cords of 10 IVF children and 13 children who were naturally conceived. They studied the DNA of cells taken from the blood to see if there were differences in the level of methylation. This is the process by which molecules known as methyl groups are attached to genes to shut them down when they are not needed. The results showed that the level of methylation in the cells taken from IVF babies was significantly lower — implying that some genes were becoming active at the wrong times.
Hayek’s warnings in The Fatal Conceit are as timely as ever. He was worried when we were “merely” trying to reconstruct society. Now we are trying to reconstruct the human person. Of course, everything he worried about applies to our new conceits, in spades.