The Catholic Church expressly calls in vitro fertilization and artificial insemination grave sins for the very reasons being debated in this thread -- messing with human conception, starting with artificial birth control, opens the door to the very problems we face today -- abortion, embryonic research and disposal, etc. The encyclical, Humanae Vitae (1968), has been vindicated to the letter for its wisdom and prophetic vision. It is undeniable that the Church's stance on Human Life is correct moral, ethical, psychological and physical teaching for the benefit of society and the happiness of the individual.

Saw a bumper sticker that I'm sure the lefties here would love: '6 Billion Miracles Are Enough.' That sums up the difference between the two sides on the issue of the sanctity and value of human life. Why liberals need to profess their philosophy in the form of dozens of bumper stickers is beyond me, but this one displayed such hubris that it really stood out. A friend said that the driver (a woman in her 20s) must have had some real issues -- I said that the issue may simply have been that she attended the local university.

It really is a battle between the culture of life and the culture of death. Think about it, the Catholic Church sees fit to utilize 2000 years of true wisdom and deep philosophical history to produce profound writings on the value Life and human happiness. And the cult of progress seeks to alter or destroy life at every turn (abortion, euthanasia, duty to die, cloning, embryonic stem cell research, population control), and writes clever and shallow conjectures that appeal only to the dark mind of self-described intellectual left.