Facebook and Apple corporations have announced surrogacy and fertility programs that are anathema to many religious employees. These recently announced programs pay up to $20,000 for two courses of egg freezing for female employees (if they have not had cancer or are infertile), most of whom have no reason to doubt their ability to conceive a child naturally.

If an Islamic employer told his employees he contributes to Hamas, that information would contribute to a hostile environment for Jewish workers. Similarly, when Facebook and Apple tell employees they are contributing to practices that destroy human embryos, they are contributing to atmospheres that are hostile to Biblical Christians and others.

Literally meaning “in glass” fertilization, in vitro fertilization operates on the theory that if you throw enough “pre-born” human beings some of them will stick. (Yes, “pre-born” is the best term for fertilized human embryos.  Getting born is a big rite of passage.)  Three to five days after in vitro fertilization has occurred, many of the “best” embryos are selected (the rest are destroyed), and then injected into the womb, because approximately 85% will not survive. If more than two embryos do implant, the rest will typically be aborted.

A 2013 article in the journal Fertility and Sterility reports the results of over 2,265 cycles of freezing and thawing, analyzing the ultimate probability of a live birth according to the age of the women at the time of egg harvesting and freezing.  The $20,000 Facebook and Apple benefit – two cycles of egg harvesting – would result in a 31.5% probability of producing a baby for women who froze their eggs at age 25; 25.9% probability at age 30; 19.3% at age 35, 14.8% probability at age 40.  In short, while these “benefits” may improve workforce maintenance for Facebook and Apple, delaying childbirth obviates the chance of a young couple experiencing the joy of naturally bringing a child into the world.

There is an intrusive creepiness in corporations paying for ova extraction and implantation.  Roe v. Wade was tweezered out of the Constitution based on the right to privacy.  The denial of human identity to the “pre-born” was justified on the basis of a woman’s right to be left alone with her doctor.  Corporations involved in egg freezing would tend to undermine medical privacy rather than protect it. Far more importantly, the buying and selling of human ova, sperm, and embryos is a commodification of human beings.

These two corporations may hope to defer childbirth for their female employees, enabling them to extract more productivity before bringing children into the world and raising them diverts attention. But at what cost to values that can’t be found on a spreadsheet?