Question

If a couple wants to have children but it is not possible in a natural way and they use modern medicine and "invetro fertility", do they collect bad Kamma, because of being greedy, especially if the woman has a miscarriage?

Answer

If a couple cannot have children in a natural way, I don't really know that much about the invetro things, we often just recommend why not adopt children, there are plenty to adopt. I do know of some people where if the woman is still fertile and the fellow isn't, then the brother of the fellow would donate the sperm, or the father, so it is still kind of in the family. These are modern ways - I don't know that there is any bad Kamma involved in that, I don't think there is. This particular method I don't know, so I can't comment.

If the woman has a miscarriage, - I assume the question is referring to a miscarriage from that type of birth method. Would there be any bad Kamma because of greediness, or is the miscarriage a result maybe of greediness? No, we wouldn't necessarily put it that way. A miscarriage is to me personally a big event, far bigger than just a wish to have a children. I wouldn't say the miscarriage is a result of that particular thought or greed in the sense of wishing to have children. To me, and according to Buddhism, a miscarriage is such a big event it would have roots in some much bigger type of bad Kamma that somebody made in the past. If that is not clear enough for the person who wrote this please feel free to ask again in the interviews.

Our apologies if there are any errors in the above text. If anything seems to be wrong or confusing in any way, please feel free to contact the teachers for further clarification.