Fertility Treatments QUESTION from Jess March 22, 2001 I am doing a project on Fertility Treatments and was wondering what you have to say about it. What is your opinion and what does the Catholic Church say about it? Thanks!
ANSWER by John-Paul Ignatius, OLSM on June 4, 2001 Dear Miss Jess:
Here is the Church's official teaching -- From the Catechism:
The gift of a child
2373 Sacred Scripture and the Church's traditional practice see in large families a sign of God's blessing and the parents' generosity. 163
2374 Couples who discover that they are sterile suffer greatly. What will you give me, asks Abraham of God, for I continue childless? 164 And Rachel cries to her husband Jacob, Give me children, or I shall die! 165
2375 Research aimed at reducing human sterility is to be encouraged, on condition that it is placed at the service of the human person, of his inalienable rights, and his true and integral good according to the design and will of God. 166
2376 Techniques that entail the dissociation of husband and wife, by the intrusion of a person other than the couple (donation of sperm or ovum, surrogate uterus), are gravely immoral. These techniques (heterologous artificial insemination and fertilization) infringe the child's right to be born of a father and mother known to him and bound to each other by marriage. They betray the spouses' right to become a father and a mother only through each other. 167
2377 Techniques involving only the married couple (homologous artificial insemination and fertilization) are perhaps less reprehensible, yet remain morally unacceptable. They dissociate the sexual act from the procreative act. The act which brings the child into existence is no longer an act by which two persons give themselves to one another, but one that entrusts the life and identity of the embryo into the power of doctors and biologists and establishes the domination of technology over the origin and destiny of the human person. Such a relationship of domination is in itself contrary to the dignity and equality that must be common to parents and children. 168 Under the moral aspect procreation is deprived of its proper perfection when it is not willed as the fruit of the conjugal act, that is to say, of the specific act of the spouses' union .... Only respect for the link between the meanings of the conjugal act and respect for the unity of the human being make possible procreation in conformity with the dignity of the person. 169
2378 A child is not something owed to one, but is a gift. The supreme gift of marriage is a human person. A child may not be considered a piece of property, an idea to which an alleged right to a child would lead. In this area, only the child possesses genuine rights: the right to be the fruit of the specific act of the conjugal love of his parents, and the right to be respected as a person from the moment of his conception. 170
2379 The Gospel shows that physical sterility is not an absolute evil. Spouses who still suffer from infertility after exhausting legitimate medical procedures should unite themselves with the Lord's Cross, the source of all spiritual fecundity. They can give expression to their generosity by adopting abandoned children or performing demanding services for others.
Here is an article from the National Council of Bishops: http://www.nccbuscc.org/prolife/programs/rlp/98rlphaa.htm
And here is an official Church document from the Vatican about modern Fertility treatments: http://www.saint-mike.org/Library/Curia/Congregations/Faith/Donum_Vitae.html
Sorry I did not get this to you earlier.
Back to Index Page