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A Journey to Life for Our Times
Allow me a minute of personal privilege — of pure delight. Last week, as some of you know, Maddy Kearns and Nicholas Tomaino met their daughter for the first time. First of all, Maddy and Nick met at National Review. So that’s a pursuit of happiness that is the stuff of family. Monsignor Roger Landry celebrated their wedding Mass. He’s actually become over the years an unofficial chaplain to NR; he’s done wedding prep and the big day for many a young couple, one at least of whom came through the House that William F. Buckley Jr. built.
You may know a little about Maddy’s motherhood because of her piece in the Free Press over the weekend. If you haven’t, please do read it. And not only read it, but reread it and share it. It’s both an authoritative reporting piece on alternatives to in vitro fertilization and a deeply personal reflection on her own navigation of the scandal of women’s health care today. As she signed off, she gave us marching orders by example: We need more of this — information, truth about medicine, courageous young people and doctors. And more reporting on beacons of a culture of life and civilization of love in our midst.
Can We Please Be Honest About IVF?
This item is not about judging parents or looking down on children because of how they came into the world. It is about informed consent. Couples struggling with infertility deserve to know what they are getting into when they consider assisted reproductive technologies.
People who vote pro-life have been horrified to learn what they didn’t know, when it was too late to make different decisions.
Have you ever gotten a monthly payment reminder on your frozen unborn children? That’s not something Ericka Andersen and her husband thought about when they decided to pursue in vitro fertilization. Ericka doesn’t want others to suffer what they are — determining what to do. They are going to have the embryos adopted.
Ericka is quick to say embryo adoption should not be a plan going in; it’s how they are making the best of the situation they’re all in.
The Andersens have benefitted from IVF, grateful for their children. But they also know now there are other ways to deal with and treat infertility.
Ericka has written for the Wall Street Journal, First Things, Christianity Today, and her own Substack about IVF, informed by her experience and the extensive research she’s done since embarking on the journey. She talked with me about what needs to be more widely known when it comes to infertility and options — and what IVF involves and means practically, scientifically, and morally — here.
By the way, just to underscore something critical: Going back to Maddy and Nick — their Catholic faith is not the only reason to oppose IVF. Being pro-life is not the only reason. It’s false hope in all too many cases. And there are alternatives that work better, don’t have the same moral concerns, and even cost less. As we wait for the Trump administration’s promised boon to IVF, Republicans pay attention. We need more of the alternatives, more stories like Maddy and Nick’s, more informed consent — more actual, honest hope.
Excuse Us While We Take Your Organs
Last spring, when Misty Hawkins “choked while eating and fell into a coma, her mother decided to take her off life support and donate her organs,” according to the New York Times. “She was removed from a ventilator and, after 103 minutes, declared dead.” So an incision was made in her chest, and the surgeon “sawed through her breastbone.” And:
That’s when the doctors discovered her heart was beating. She appeared to be breathing. They were slicing into Ms. Hawkins while she was alive.
The Times, to its credit, had a piece this week on a dangerous rush to organs for transplants.
The report says:
Though Ms. Hawkins’s case is an extreme example of what can go wrong, a New York Times examination revealed a pattern of rushed decision-making that has prioritized the need for more organs over the safety of potential donors.
In New Mexico, a woman was subjected to days of preparation for donation, even after her family said that she seemed to be regaining consciousness, which she eventually did. In Florida, a man cried and bit on his breathing tube but was still withdrawn from life support. In West Virginia, doctors were appalled when coordinators asked a paralyzed man coming off sedatives in an operating room for consent to remove his organs. . . . Fifty-five medical workers in 19 states told The Times they had witnessed at least one disturbing case of donation after circulatory death.
I’ve been giving my friend, ethicist Charlie Camosy, a hard time for spending time thinking and speaking about brain death — not exactly a cheery topic. But trends like these are exactly why it is critical that he does.
Ed Feulner, a Man Fully Alive, for Life
Many things have and will continue to be said about the substantial American life that Heritage Foundation founder Ed Feulner lived — seeking to make happiness and flourishing possible for others. His whole connection between people and policy was a fruit of trying to be Christian in the world.
(Here’s something from me. But read Elizabeth Spalding, please, here.)
There was a time when I did several collaborations with friends who were at Heritage on assisted suicide and abortion and related issues. Heritage can be such a gift to work with because of its resources — the infrastructure to livestream and have a working lunch after events full of policymakers and advocates. We had a beautiful panel on assisted suicide and the life of J. J. Hanson — he and his wife radiantly and bravely fought against his brain cancer and the push for medical suicide. We focused on real women’s health care, on adoption, on many things that were possible because of Ed Feulner’s understanding of a conservatism that defends and protects life and is about stewardship of the gifts of our Creator.
I was Googling and found an old interview I did with Ed in 2006, in which he talked about Roe v. Wade as “insane — and, frankly, un-American.” He said that “on these important moral issues [like abortion], nine unelected judges are forcing their moral judgments on the American people. Our system is one which allows these moral issues to be handled in a way that respects the will of the people. Getting America Right [his book published at the time] urges our country to get back to that successful formula even if that makes the New York Times unhappy.” I almost emailed Ed just last week about a few different things — and to say “hello.” I wish I had done a post-Dobbs interview three years in with him. If only we had known it was time for an exit interview. The magnificent John J. Miller wrote a profile for NR about Ed when the National Review Institute gave him our award named after Ed’s dear friend, WFB. You can read it here.
The March Goes On
If you are one of us who are doing penance for our sins by being on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, you may have seen Michael New (professor at Catholic U and frequent NRO contributor) post daily updates about how many days we have to go until the next March for Life. It’s six months from now, the March for Life itself announced this week, urging people to mark their calendars for January 23, 2026. We’re still marching in Washington, D.C., because Roe happened, and D.C. needs to remember and do better for women and the unborn and all of humanity.
Other Things That Caught My Eye
Dr. Lydia Dugdale is amazing. Author of The Art of Dying: Reviving Forgotten Wisdom, she is a doctor and ethicist at Columbia University in New York. While speaking on a recent panel on assisted suicide, she pointed out that increasingly her trainees — our future doctors and nurses — want to know why there is any stigma against suicide, like, ever. My body, my choice, after all. And, it is a solution — including, one young woman recently pointed out to her, to loneliness. If that sounds crazy, just look at what is happening with legal medical aid in dying (MAID, as they call it), up north in Canada. Homeless? We have MAID for you. . . .
Anyway, Dugdale had an excellent piece some months ago, and now she has a piece in the Free Press on another matter of human life: “One Embryo. Three Parents. The Future Is Already Here.”
Around National Review
Michael New: Judge Talwani Tries to Force Funding of Planned Parenthood. Pro-Lifers Should Win on Appeal
James Lynch: Planned Parenthood Lied About Safety of Abortion Drug to Increase Revenue, Lawsuit Alleges
David Bereit: Yes, West Virginia, You Can Protect Women from Chemical Abortion
Jack Butler: Europe Is Extinguishing Itself
Me: Martina Navratilova Is Right: Surrogacy Is Wrong
Many Ways of Making Babies: Just Because We Can Doesn’t Make It Right
Meet Nash, Who Holds a World Record for Premature Babies
Upcoming
I’m emceeing the annual Aid for Women Gala in Chicago on September 25. All are welcome, with a little support for an organization that saves lives. (I’ve been to some of their centers and maternity homes over the years. Details here.)
I’ll be having a conversation with Peggy Noonan in New York City in late September for the Given Institute. It’s an event for women, FYI. More here.
Closing Time
To contact me to speak, or for any other reason, I’m at klopez@nationalreview.com. I crave proof that you are reading, and feedback of all sorts — including letting me know what you and/or your organization are up to.
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See you again. God willing. Let’s all go do something intentional to make someone’s life more manageable, joyful, less alone.