On the Morality of In Vitro Fertilization

After viewing the dateline special on IVF and reading the US Catholic article about IVF, what are the pros and cons of IVF?  How does the Church's teaching about IVF inform your opinion?  Does the financial cost of IVF affect your opinion on the morality of the practice? 

Pros: 

• Hopefully, the birth of a happy, healthy baby!
• Bringing new life into the world and into a marriage
• Allows couples to have their own biological children
• High success rate

Cons

• Expensive
• Unpredictable: physical and medical uncertainty
• Considered inherently unnatural and immoral by Catholic and Protestant Church
• Stressful process to go through
• Health of mother and child could be at risk

Reading the US Catholic article on IVF definitely informed my opinion about the procedure. I knew that the Church does not approve of the practice because it believes that children should only be the result of sex within marriage. However, I did not know that the Church approves of several other fertility treatments such as "the use of drugs to increase the number of eggs produced, surgery to eliminate blockages in the husband's or wife's body, and gamete inta-fallopian transfer (GIFT.)" This revelation caused me to wonder why the Church has approved of some of these practices, yet continues to condemn IVF as immoral. Their reasons against IVF include the interference with conception and the sexual act, the potential death of embryos, and the use of masturbation and pornography that is often used to obtain the sperm necessary for the procedure. While the Church's reasons certainly affect my view of IVF, the sheer cost is another factor that must be accounted for. I do approve of the use of IVF to bring a new child of God into the world, but I wonder if the excessive cost makes it a worthwhile procedure. Spending $100,000 dollars to have a child that is biologically yours seems less noble than adopting a child and donating that money to charity. Still, I do not think that IVF is an inherently immoral practice, although it certainly can be used immorally.