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Q: What is the Church's position on in vitro fertilization?
(Maria)
Dear Maria:
As you read the following answer to your question, especially the parts dealing with medical matters, please bear in mind that I am not a doctor, and specifically not an embryologist. My explanations come from material I have read, as opposed to studied, and I claim no expertise in medical matters.
As you know, in vitro fertilization (IVF) is the process of using artificial means to conceive a child. In simplest terms, this is a laboratory procedure where a number of ova are removed from a women and mixed with semen in a test tube or petri dish (the words 'in vitro' mean 'in glass'). After fertilization, the doctor examines the embryos and selects the healthiest for transplantation into the woman's uterus. More embryos are produced than are needed for transplantation. Those not required are either donated to other couples, used for scientific research, or (as one infertility clinic states on its website) "simply disposed of." In other words, the embryo, the child in its earliest stages of development, is either directly aborted, or used in experiments which result in its abortion (For more information on this aspect of the topic, please see the answer to Matthew's question on stem cell research elsewhere on our website).
As the Church points out, what at first glance seems like a life-giving procedure, in reality is destructive:
" The various techniques of artificial reproduction, which would seem to be at the service of life and which are frequently used with this intention, actually open the door to new threats against life. Apart from the fact that they are morally unacceptable, since they separate procreation from the fully human context of the conjugal act, these techniques have a high rate of failure: not just failure in relation to fertilization but with regard to the subsequent development of the embryo, which is exposed to the risk of death, generally within a very short space of time. Furthermore, the number of embryos produced is often greater than that needed for implantation in the woman's womb, and these so-called 'spare embryos' are then destroyed or used for research which, under the pretext of scientific or medical progress, in fact reduces human life to the level of simple 'biological material' to be freely disposed of." ('Evangelium Vitae', 1995)
As noted above, it is also the teaching of the Church that the intimate togetherness of the conjugal act, which involves authentic mutual love - what the Church refers to as the 'unitive significance' of the act - must not be separated by artificial means from the generative or procreative significance, even if the purpose of the technological intervention is to promote life.
"...the act of conjugal love is considered in the teaching of the Church as the only setting worthy of human procreation." ('Donum Vitae', 1987)
The Church recognizes that couples who are sterile "suffer greatly" (Catechism: 2373), but the Church believes that to generate human life in a laboratory is to treat human life as a product, something manufactured rather than begotten, instead of a gift of God resulting from the gift of self.
" 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." (Catechism: 2378)
Like a loving mother, the Church is not blind to the suffering of her children, and to the difficulties inherent in the lives of married couples, especially when faced with infertility. Pope Paul VI expressed this concern in his encyclical letter, noting that "the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life," and urging couples to bear their trial, supported by faith. "Let them implore divine assistance by persevering prayer; above all, let them draw from the source of grace and charity in the Eucharist." (Humane Vitae. No. 25)
God bless,
Father Norbert