IVF is not the solution to Britain’s birth rate crisis. God’s plan for the family is

The UK birth rate has fallen to its lowest level in half a century. While some blame economics, Lois McLatchie Miller argues that IVF is encouraging us to put our fertility on hold while pursuing our dreams. But for Christians, the technology comes with difficult ethical implications

According to ONS figures released this week, Britain’s birth rate has fallen to its lowest level in half a century. The average woman in England and Wales is now expected to have just 1.39 children – far below the 2.1 needed to sustain a population without large-scale immigration. More couples than ever are delaying children into their thirties, or deciding not to have them at all. 

This matters for a number of reasons. Firstly, a childless population becomes a lonely population. Already, a third of Britain’s households are single-occupant. Nearly 50% of Brits report feeling lonely sometimes, often, or always. We were not made to be alone. Atomisation has hard consequences on the human psyche.

Secondly, this matters on a macro level. Families were traditionally the primary caregivers to the older generation – a burden shared widely between various siblings and relatives. Without children, elderly people rely solely on the state to provide for their needs. A rapidly aging population has an expensive tax bill. And with fewer working-age adults to generate GDP, that shrinking population has a shrinking effect on the economy sooner rather than later.