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Morality Debate: Snowflake Babies

5/7/2012

7 Comments

 
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Mattie, a reader, started an avalanche of thought for me last week.  Ever since, I've kinda been on the hunt for answers to the many questions that've come from her simple, "Can ya just go get IVF?"

The short answer is No - for a variety of reasons. 

IVF is considered immoral by the Church.  Every child deserves the right to begin life at conception through the loving embrace of both parents who are in a stable, dignified and ordered marriage.  In fact, a beautiful quote from the Church in Her
DONUM VITAE states as much:

The child has the right to be conceived... to be the fruit of the specific act of the conjugal love of his parents; and he also has the right to be respected as a person from the moment of his conception.

That, my friends, is true respect.  That is dignity.  To acknowledge the right exists, even before this tiny person comes into existence, for a loving, sacred and nurturing place of refuge proves the respect and care Catholics take in our role as stewards of life. 

This is why the Church so staunchly defends marriage and sexuality.  These two unalienable gifts from God are the building blocks of healthy procreation.  It is through the ordered marriage relationship that true sexuality reaches fulfillment - that fulfillment being the union of husband and wife and thus the creation of the physical, living sign of their love - children.

These children, having been created in the ordered and sacred manner in which God decreed, will be blessed to grow up in an ordered, loving household in which their own development can best be discovered, ordered and reach fulfillment.

This is not to say, however, that children from single-parent households, children of rape, children of adoption, etc cannot grow up to reach their full, ordered potential.  Through the grace of God, anything is possible, and He certainly loves these cherished souls as much as those co-created in the marriage embrace.  However, He desired that we order ourselves in the aforementioned manner because it is through this ordering that we afford our children the best chance for emotional, psychological and spiritual stability. 

Thus, IVF (specifically the act of joining a sperm and an egg in a laboratory setting) is considered immoral because it removes this dignity and order from the person(s) created.  

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Credit: Glassanos - Click image for info
However, this leaves a really big question wide open, and the Church has yet to get entrenched in the details. 

After answering the above question for Mattie, my mind traveled down the rabbit hole a bit farther.  Since IVF has already been utilized countless times by infertile couples looking to have children, what happens to all the embryos created that are simply frozen in time?


There's no easy answer for this - and I've looked!

I've taken several key folks to task over this.  Priests, two professional theologians, an incredibly smart and spiritually sound couple, and a smattering of ordinary lay-Catholics who have been touched by issues of infertility, adoption and even eugenics.  None were able to provide a concrete answer because as of yet, there simply isn't one.

The married couple, however, provided the best resource I've yet seen on this!  My special thanks to them for their incomparable knowledge and willingness to share that knowledge with others.  I link it here for your own illumination.

In it, you will find two heavy-weight Catholic ethicists duke the issue out at a bioethics conference late last year. 

Though I take issue with the attempt of Father Pacholczyk to denigrate the discussion into one of spousal rights (since this isn't so much about fertilization so much as adoption of a life that's already been created), what he says about causing us to tumble down a slippery slope is certainly a concern I agree with. 

However, most of what Dr. Smith relays (comparing this to adoption / breastfeeding) falls right in line with my own views. 

As a person who believes that God opens a window every time we close the door on ourselves through sin, I can't help but wonder if embryo adoption is God's way of answering the problem we created through the sin of IVF.

This is a question that, as of yet, has no real answers.  As one of the women I talked to put it, though, I'd be hard-pressed to condemn a married couple who bore a child in this manner.  Granted, I'd be hard-pressed to condemn anyone for anything, but I digress.

I can't help but wonder if God allowed infertile married couples to exist specifically so they could answer the call of these poor children stuck in a frozen limbo. 

Thoughts?

7 Comments
Lauren
5/7/2012 07:43:07 am

Lollipops, that's a tough one! I really like that quote from Pope Benedict. As a woman who struggles with infertility, I have a really tough time with the Church's stance on IVF. I understand it and abide by it, but I feel like a horse who has a big fat carrot being waved in her face all the time by the media.

You bringing up the issue of snowflake babies is one my husband and I have discussed. I don't know if I agree with you because I want an answer to our desire for children or what, but what you say makes a lot of sense. I don't know. Thank you for bringing this up in a gentle way, and for being honest about not knowing all the answers. It's so frustrating that the Church hasn't said anything about this because it's such a new issue. If you find anything else, please post it!

Reply
Gina
5/7/2012 07:51:55 am

"Lollipops."

Ha ha - someone was watching Chloe's Closet with Ruthie again...

{hugs}

I love you.

Reply
Gina
5/7/2012 08:23:06 am

Oh - and PS - that's not a quote from Pope Benedict! I originally thought it was, too, but when I checked it out, it was released by the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith.

*Grin*

Reply
Dom
5/7/2012 01:02:12 pm

Okay. I've thought about this carefully, and here are my 2 cents.

The children already exist. However immorally they were conceived, *they are here now.* They have bodies and souls, and are absolutely and undeniably, according to the Catholic Church, human beings. Therefore, in the case of their abandonment by their natural parents, I think that they are candidates for adoption. The fact that the adoption would begin with a nine-months' pre-natal surrogacy is a bit of a tricky factor, but only if one forgets that the implantation of the adopted child through artificial means *in no way* constitutes a foray into IVF, because conception has already happened. All a maternal candidate would be doing is attempting to give the child a good home, first in her womb, then in her arms. As for the alternatives... What is the alternative? Permanent cryo-stasis, employment as tissue for medical and scientific research, and eventual binning on trash-day? I think that there is only one ethical answer, really, if the culture of life is to be followed to its logical conclusion there.

Gina
5/7/2012 07:51:37 am

"Lollipops."

Ha ha - someone was watching Chloe's Closet with Ruthie again...

{hugs}

I love you.

Reply
Cassi Duncan
5/7/2012 04:07:42 pm

I'll start with the disclaimer that I'm Protestant rather than Catholic, so you may decide to take my words with a grain of proverbial salt, if you prefer. I completely agree with Dom. These children are already created! Just because they were created outside a woman's body does not make them any less a precious life to God, whatever they may be to those who created them. In point of fact, God allowed this technology to work, and thus allowed their creation, unless we consider that He IS the creator of life, in which case we are forced to consider that He created their lives; the scientists just performed a medical procedure with the intention that life would result. He has a purpose for these lives, whether He approves of the method of their creation or not. He doesn't approve of the method of creating a child when a pregnancy results from a rape or a drunken one-night stand. But the life that results is no less precious, and He has a purpose and plan for that life. Life is life, however it comes to be. I truly think the only ethical solution is to allow these babies to be adopted by loving parents.

Reply
Gina
5/8/2012 01:13:50 am

Welcome aboard, Cassi! Glad to have you join in the discussion. If I might ask - how'd you stumble upon this page?

Regardless, happy to have you here! :)

I definitely seem to fall more in line with what you and Dom point out than not. I, too, view this conception in a similar vein as rape / one-night-stand. The point of issue isn't conception - it's the children who exist now that the sin has already been committed. What recourse do we have for these blessed little souls who have yet to realize life beyond the blastocyst, ya know?

I honestly believe that embryo adoption is the most preferable method. In fact, I think the Church (in Her wisdom) side-stepped this particular all together when drafting the teachings on IVF. The Holy Spirit was kind to leave this window open for us. He had the foresight to know that we'd need a ladder out of the abyss we'd create for ourselves through this procedure.

Maybe adoption will prove to be that ladder in the coming years as the bishops and Pope tackle this issue. God's Will be done in all.

One of the readers from a couple weeks raised a really good chuckle: Could you imagine St. Peter trying to tackle this while talking about circumcision way back when? LoL. Ay!

Do Protestants have any sort of teaching on this, Cassi?

Reply



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