As I was browsing the Internet last week, I came across a headline that caught my eye: “‘Test tube babies’: God’s work or human error?” It was from Cathy Lynn Grossman’s Faith and Reason blog on USA TODAY’s website. In her blog, Grossman discussed in vitro fertilization and posed the question, “Do you think a baby conceived in a test tube is still a child in the eyes of God?” I sat there thinking, “Does anyone really think that children born from in vitro fertilization are not actually children; not actually human?”

A lot of people, particularly the Catholic Church, say in vitro fertilization is wrong because it is something that wasn’t meant to happen naturally, therefore it shouldn’t exist.

But a lot of things that aren’t necessarily natural are commonplace today.

Say you have a gash in your arm that won’t stop bleeding. I don’t know how it got there; maybe you accidently put a fork in the microwave and it exploded and you got hit with microwave scrap metal. However it happened, you’re about to bleed to death. Do you go to the doctor, or do you wait in your kitchen? Whatever your beliefs may be, I think most reading this would go to the emergency room. If you go the route of a doctor, would you get stitches even though they are not naturally meant to be there?

Newer technologies, especially medical technologies, are meant to help people. They produce good results and save lives. Stitches aren’t so new, but at some point in time they were.

There is a joke about a shipwrecked man floating in the ocean. A ship comes to his rescue, but he tells the captain that he’s waiting for God to save him. Another ship comes, but he tells the captain the same thing. And then another ship comes… well, you get the point. The man drowns, and once in heaven he asks God why He didn’t save him.

God replies, “You idiot! I sent you three ships!”

Whatever beliefs you subscribe to, I think we can all agree that ships weren’t directly invented by God, and certainly weren’t built by God, but by the hands of men. It’s not unnatural to accept the help of something man-made.

Another problem that the Catholic Church has with IVF is that they believe the parents feel they are owed a child; in seeking out IVF they consider that child a piece of property. But most couples plan their pregnancies. Planning to have a child at a particular time is not considered acting on an entitlement to a child.

Besides, a child is mostly without rights until he or she is 18. Parents make decisions for their children (to an extent). And parents claim children on their tax forms and receive money from the government. A child breaking away from legal guardianship of his or her parents is called emancipation, which is defined as “to free from restraint or control of another.” So, aren’t children currently viewed as the property of their parents?

It’s easy for Catholic Church officials to point fingers and say that women should adopt rather than attempt to have a child “unnaturally.” I don’t think they understand the maternal drive of women. Women want a child that’s a part of them. They want the close connection to their child that comes with pregnancy.

But it’s also easy for me to point my finger at the Catholic Church because I’ve never attempted to have a child. It’s a never ending circle of blame.

So how ’bout we leave the issue to the parents-in-waiting. Because in the end, it shouldn’t matter how a child is conceived, so long as the parents love that child and care for it.