Tiny Human Life    page - 415 - V.    IVF (TEST-TUBE BABIES) AND ET (EMBRYO- TRANSFER) "Jesus...told them: 'Have you not read that He Who made them at the beginning, made them male and female [or "piercer" and "piercee"], and [that] He said "This is why a man shall leave father  and  mother  -  to  cleave  to  his  wife  so  that  the  two  of  them  become  one  flesh"? Therefore, they are no longer two, but one flesh. What God then has joined together - do not let man put asunder!' ... Men ought to love their wives as their own bodies.... For no man ever yet hated his own flesh. But he nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the Church. For we are members of His body - of His flesh, and of His bones. For this reason, a man shall be  joined  to  his  wife  -  so  that  the  two  of  them  become  one  flesh....  Offspring,  obey  your begetters! ... Honour your father and your mother!" - Matthew 19:4-6 & Ephesians 5:28 to 6:2. 2885.   In 1932 A.D., Aldous Huxley (novelist brother of the evolutionistic Biologist Sir Julian Huxley, and  grandson  of  the  Darwinian  Anatomist  Professor  T.H.  Huxley)  -  published  his  epoch- making book Brave New World. That novel predictively described a 25th-century nightmare of genetically-engineered  humans  of different  classes, all manufactured  in  test-tubes.  Perhaps more than any other writing, Huxley's book set the stage first for speculation and thereafter for research which finally resulted in the actual advent of the artificial conception of tiny human beings. Definition and brief history of in vitro fertilization 2886.   By  IVF  (alias  In  Vitro  Fertilization)  is  meant  the  artificial  conception  of  'test-tube  offspring' fertilized in a laboratory. Thus Rev. Robert Missenden.¹ To that definition, after its final word (laboratory), we ourselves would add: whether thereafter implanted into the uterus of some or other female or incubator, or whether thereafter kept under refrigeration in the limbo of liquid nitrogen or some other preservative until needed for transplantation (or otherwise marooned there until Judgment Day). 2887.   We  ourselves  are  in  complete  agreement  with  Rev.  Missenden²  that  IVF  is  indeed  an extension  of  artificial  insemination.  This  was  also  recognized  in  P.E.  De  Witt's  article  on Cloning,  which  -  under  the  heading  'Test-Tube  Reproduction'  -  usefully  summarized  the following history:³ 2888.   "1799 - pregnancy reported from artificial insemination [from husband]. 1944 - First attempt at in vitro fertilization. [About] 1949 - researchers discover glycerol can be used to freeze sperm for later use. 1951 - first successful transfer of an embryo from one cow to another. 1952 - frogs cloned from the  cells  of tadpoles. 1959  - live rabbit  offspring from  in  vitro  fertilization. 1963 - frozen sperm used for human artificial insemination. 1970 - mice embryos are cloned. 1972  -  live  offspring  from  frozen  mouse  embryos.  1973  -  first  calf  produced  from  a  frozen                                                      1. Compare Missenden's Art. Insem., pp. 113-17f. There, thinking specifically of human beings, Missenden speaks of "test-tube babies fertilized in the lab, and the embryo then implanted in the uterus of the mother." Our own above-mentioned definition, however, is broader. It applies not only to human IVF, but also to the in vitro fertilization by and from and into animals - from which human manipulation of animals and animal-parts, the techniques also of human IVF were derived. Our own definition recognizes the existence of human IVF even when there is no subsequent embryo transplant: a) into the womb of the biological mother; b) into any human womb whatsoever; c) into an animal womb; d) into a lifeless yet life-promoting incubator; or d) into no medium or life-supporting environment whatsoever. 2. Bib.-Eth. Inq., p. 1. 3. P.E. De Witt: Cloning (in Time, Nov. 8th 1993, pp. 56f).