The late theologian, Msgr. William Smith, once quipped (I’m paraphrasing), that man first did everything possible to have sex without babies and now man is doing everything possible to have babies without sex. That latter pursuit was dramatically advanced in the late 1970s with the advent of in-vitro fertilization (IVF).
The IVF technique involves surgically removing eggs from a woman and fertilizing them in a petri dish with sperm from a man. The resulting human embryo is then nourished and grown in the dish for four or five days at which time he/she is implanted in a mother’s womb or frozen for future “use”.
The first human being produced and born using IVF was Louise Brown, in 1978. Since then, about four million babies have been born using IVF.
Robert Edwards, who developed the IVF technique was recently awarded the 2010 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine drawing strong criticism from Bishop Ignacio Carrasco de Paula, president of the pontifical Academy for Life.
“Without Edwards,” the bishop said, “there would be no market for human eggs; without Edwards there would not be freezers full of embryos waiting to be transferred to a uterus, or, more likely, used for research or left to die, abandoned and forgotten about by all.”
“This scientist is regarded as a hero,” Bishop de Paula continued, “but what he has really done is to create a market for manufactured humanity.” “This is not a gift to humanity, it is a death sentence to millions of tiny human beings who are created only to be destroyed.”
“Edwards supposedly great accomplishment has also created a means for the ultra-rich to tamper with every genetic aspect of the person, creating designer human beings,” the bishop lamented. “Sadly, we are reminded that the very real good of science can be destroyed when fundamental and universal ethical principles are kept out of the scientific process—in this case, the great value and dignity of the human person.”
The Church’s teaching on artificial reproductive technologies like IVF is explained in the Vatican’s 1987 document Donum Vitae and in its 2008 document Dignitas Personae. In an article for the U.S. Bishops Respect Life Program entitled “Begotten Not Made”, Dr. John Haas summarized the Church’s teaching thus:
“In 1987 the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a document known as Donum Vitae (“The Gift of Life”), which addressed the morality of many modern fertility procedures. The document did not judge the use of technology to overcome infertility as wrong in itself. It concluded that some methods are moral, while others—because they do violence to the dignity of the human person and the institution of marriage—are immoral.
“Donum Vitae reaffirmed an obligation to protect all human life when married couples use various technologies to try to have children. Without questioning the motives of those using these techniques, Donum Vitae pointed out that people can do harm to themselves and others even as they try to do what is good, that is, overcome infertility. The fundamental principle which the Church used to assess the morality of various means of overcoming infertility was a rather simple one, even if its application is sometimes difficult.
“Donum Vitae teaches that if a given medical intervention helps or assists the marriage act to achieve pregnancy, it may be considered moral; if the intervention replaces the marriage act in order to engender life, it is not moral.”
Donum Vitae, Dignitas Personae and other documents like the U.S. Bishops’ “Married Love and the Gift of Life” that explain this vital teaching on human love and life are available online at www.usccb.org/prolife. Another great resource available to assist those experiencing infertility is the Pope Paul VI Institute in Omaha (www.popepaulvi.com; 402-390-6600).
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