Welcome to Breakpoint, a daily look at an ever-changing culture through the lens of unchanging truth.

For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street.

A recent gut-wrenching story from the New York Times magazine should be required reading for anyone thinking about employing in vitro fertilization.

After a mix-up, two California couples ended up carrying, birthing, and raising each other's baby

girls for several months. Ultimately, the two sets of parents made the unbearable decision

to switch children, choosing custody of their genetic daughters over the ones they had welcomed,

nursed, and loved. Though describing here a rare occurrence, the story illustrates why this

under-regulated industry needs far more

oversight, as the author notes. What's missed in the piece, however, is that the main problems

with this kind of assisted reproduction aren't the freak accidents, not the things that might

but probably won't go wrong. No, the main issue are the any number of things that go wrong

anytime that babies are created in ways that ignore God's design for the family. For example,

just as tragic as parents learning that they must give up a baby they thought was theirs

is when one genetic parent conceives a child without wanting the other parent to ever be

involved in that child's life.

And unlike a rare embryo mix-up, that kind of parental alienation is common in the fertility

industry. The Guardian recently reported that the number of single women seeking fertility

treatments in the UK has now more than tripled in just the last decade, outpacing the growth of IVF in general,

and even the growth of same-sex couple seeking to make a baby.

In her Guardian article about it, Amelia Hill quoted several women who chose to become solo mothers.

They feel, quote, unquote, empowered because they did it on their own.

And typically, the father's relegated to the status of sperm donor.

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