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The late Professor Jerome Lejeune once likened the treatment of embryos in IVF technologies to a ''miniature cryogenic Auschwitz''. This relates to the fact that, for every IVF embryo that is implanted in the womb of its mother, several more are invariably discarded, or destroyed after use in experiments.
How apt Professor Lejeune's description sounds in light of the recently released figures from the UK's Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA).
In a parliamentary question to the Department of Health, Lord Alton of Liverpool had asked three key questions: How many human embryos were deliberately destroyed in the last 12 months for which figures were available? How many human embryos were transferred to uteri in order to establish pregnancies? And what were the cumulative figures for both circumstances since such procedures were made legal?
Lord Prior of Brampton's official answers to these questions are sobering to say the least.
He confirmed that, between 1st July 2014 and 30th June 2015, some 84,044 embryos were transferred to uteri and 172,184 were discarded.
Lord Prior of Brampton also revealed that since 1st August 1991, following the 1990 ''legalization'' of IVF in the UK, 1,687,260 embryos had been transferred and 2,315,262 had been deliberately discarded.
In simple terms, this means that roughly two embryos are presently being destroyed for every one that is implanted; and that over 2.3 million human embryos - babies at a very early stage of development - have been destroyed by IVF.
Of course the Catholic Church has consistently condemned such IVF technologies in her official teachings. As such, the Church has been one of the very few bodies to officially resist this destructive and immoral technology.
There are various ethical and moral reasons why the Church is against IVF. These include the facts that: it seeks to exclude God as the co-creator with natural parents; the natural procreation of life through the unitive marriage act is excluded; the male seed is obtained through means which are objectively unnatural and sinful; human embryos are destroyed; human relationships and life are commodified by the whole process; various causes of infertility which can be effectively treated by natural alternatives are frequently overlooked.
It is a sad fact that once our society got used to having sex without babies through contraception, the way was then paved for the social acceptance of babies without sex through IVF.
The whole thing is simply Frankenstinian.
This problem is compounded by the fact that so few bishops or priests ever teach their congregations anything about the evils involved in IVF. In the last few years, we have met a couple of older Catholic grandparents whose children had been through IVF programmes, because no-one had ever explained the Church's teachings to them.
When we used to give catechesis to students and engaged couples around the country, we always included a section teaching these facts about IVF; together with information about where natural fertility treatments could be accessed as frequently-effective alternatives.
Worse than the silence of too many clergy is the fact that some priests actively collude with couples who seek IVF, through yet another people-pleasing misapplication of ''mercy''.
The result is that, although the official teaching is firmly against IVF, that vital message has not had much of an impact at the diocesan or parish level; much less has it been any kind of light for the wider culture.
And so post-modern Britain represents the very epitome of the Culture of Death: Since 1991, around 2.3 million human embryos have been destroyed in our country through IVF alone. Professor Lejeune was dead right about the perils of the cryogenic Auschwitz.
Factor in the 8 million killed by surgical abortion, and the untold numbers killed by abortifacient chemicals and devices, and it soon becomes clear that we are living through nothing short of a cryogenic and gynaecological holocaust.
The difference between this and the Third Reich of the 1940's is that there is much more indifference and a distinct lack of any resistance forthcoming from the ''good guys'' this time around. And because so much of this happens in a petri dish, a sterile abortion clinic or the privacy of the home, as opposed to death camps with watchtowers and chimneys, folks are much more detached from the grim realities involved.Â
But the sheer scale of mass-killing is just as dramatic.
If we will not correct ourselves as a society, then it will be left to Divine intervention to correct the evil course we have chosen.
May God have mercy on us all!
Our Lady of Fatima - pray for us!Â
