Baltimore, Md., Nov 18, 2009 / 13:41 pm
The U.S. bishops have approved a document regarding the moral use of reproductive technologies for couples struggling with infertility yet desire to have children. The document, titled “Life-Giving Love in an Age of Technology,” examines the procreative and unitive aspects of marriage which lead to the creation of children, and analyzes how technology can be used to assist infertile couples.
The document begins by declaring that “in marriage, man and woman are united to each other, body and soul, through a loving physical union.” This union, they explain, is essential to the creation and raising of children.
However, the document continues, simply because the desired end is good, that of having a biological child together, it does not justify “every possible means.” Thus, means of treating infertility which involve third parties, those who donate eggs, sperm, or embryos, or those which make use of another woman's womb to carry the couple's child, are immoral because they violate the unitive aspect of the marital union, “just as its unitive aspect would be violated by sexual relations with a person outside the marriage,” says the document.
The use of donors is also harmful to the third parties, as “fertility clinics show disrespect for young men and women when they treat them as commodities, by offering large sums of money for sperm or egg donors with specific intellectual, physical, or personality traits.” Such cash incentives encourage the donors to abuse the gift of their own fertility and often jeopardize the lives of the women through egg-extraction procedures.