Pope
Benedict XVI, speaking
to members of the Pontifical Academy for Life earlier this year, addressed
the issue of married couples struggling with infertility. He said, “The
Church pays great attention to the suffering of couples with infertility, she
cares for them and, precisely because of this, encourages medical research.”
But he warned against “the lure of the
technology of artificial insemination,” which is not permitted by Catholic
teaching. The Pope said to couples unable to conceive: “[Your]
vocation to marriage is no less because of this. Spouses, for their own
baptismal and marriage vocation, are called to cooperate with God in the creation
of a new humanity. The vocation to love, in fact, is a vocation to the gift of
self and this is a possibility that no organic condition can prevent. There,
where science has not yet found an answer, the answer that gives light comes
from Christ.”
Catholic teaching prohibits in vitro
fertilization, maintaining that a child has the right to be conceived in the
marital embrace of his parents. Human sexuality has two components, the unitive
and procreative; IVF separates these components and makes the procreative its
only goal. Pope Paul VI said
that there is an “inseparable connection, willed by God, and unable to be
broken by man on his own initiative, between the two meanings of the conjugal
act: the unitive meaning and the procreative meaning.”
There are other issues involved. IVF makes
the child a commodity produced in a laboratory, and makes doctors, technicians,
and even business people part of the conception process. The sperm used is usually
obtained by masturbation, which the Church teaches is immoral. The sperm or eggs
used may not come from the couple desiring the child; because one of the
spouses may be infertile, it may be necessary to use the sperm or eggs from an
outsider. Most of the embryos conceived—which the Church holds should be
respected new human lives—die, are frozen indefinitely for later implantation,
are used for research, or are discarded. Children conceived through IVF also
have a greater incidence of birth defects.
The
bottom line is that the Church views the child as a gift from God, not a right
(although the child has rights). For more information on Catholic teaching on
the issue, read the
Catechism of the
Catholic Church,
paragraphs
2373-2379.