When Donald Trump signed an executive order aimed at lowering costs for and reducing barriers to in vitro fertilization last month, that renewed the public debate over whether IVF as currently practiced is ethical in the first place. Some are celebrating the promise of IVF as a treatment for infertility while others are urging the administration to proceed with caution on fraught moral questions posed by the creation and destruction of human embryos outside the womb.
The executive order directs the president’s staff to provide him with “a list of policy recommendations on protecting IVF access and aggressively reducing out-of-pocket and health plan costs for IVF treatment.”
The order does not change federal law but directs the Domestic Policy Council to take the next steps toward Trump’s stated goal of expanding IVF access.
Because in IVF, fertilization…
