By Carl Trueman - Posted at The Christian Post:
Published January 14, 2026
I anticipate that the most controversial part of my forthcoming book, The Desecration of Man, will be my discussion of how modern fertility treatments such as IVF and surrogacy have degraded our understanding of what it means to be human. Those pursuing the treatment have good intentions — the creation of new life — and desire to lavish their love on another human being.Who can object to that, least of all someone like me who has been blessed with children?
Anyone who raises a question about the legitimacy of IVF and surrogacy is vulnerable to accusations of being meanspirited or even of denying the humanity of the children born through these methods. My answer to such criticism has always been that I do not deny the humanity of such children but, ironically, the procedure itself encourages society to think of children as commodities.
In the eyes of the law, they necessarily become analogous to pieces of property, to things, as the law must intervene in the many complicated situations that arise as a result of divorcing reproduction from its traditional context. When the surrogate child has Down syndrome, for example, who has parental responsibility? Those who donated egg and sperm, or the woman bearing the child in her womb? If the people paying for the process want the child aborted, do they have the right to demand the surrogate does as they desire? And as we move in the (near?) future toward the commercial creation of children from other body cells, the questions will only become more complicated.