Infertility And New Reproductive Techniques

Gaylinel Bongyad II – A

INFERTILITY • Inability of a couple to produce a child of their own • The condition of being unable to produce an offspring • Inability to conceive, carry or deliver a child

INFERTILITY • CAUSES – Low sperm counts due to environmental factors – Congenital abnormalities in the reproductive system – Past injuries to the uterus, ovaries or fallopian tubes – Abortion or contraceptive use – Normal decline of the woman’s fertility (menopause)

Reproductive Technology (RT) • Various medical procedures that are designed to alleviate fertility – Artificial insemination – In vitro fertilization (IVF) – Surrogate motherhood

Ethical Principles • CATHOLIC CHURCH Recognizes the goodness of the natural desire of a married couple to bring forth new life and have a child of their own - Goodness of the gift of life of children and goodness of parent’s desire to have a child whom they can love and raise to maturity

Ethical Principles • Humanae Vitae (1968) – Pope Paul VI • There is an inseparable connection, willed by God, between two aspects or “meanings” of sexual intercourse: UNITIVE

and

PROCREATIVE • This inseparable link between the two meanings inherent in the act of sexual intercourse has various important moral consequences for free human actions that involve our sexual powers

Ethical Principles • Inseparable link between the potential for our sexual capacities to communicate love and communicate life – Ground of the church’s position on ART – Intervention upon the procreative process should respect this link

Ethical Principles • Donum Vitae II,B, 4,7 – “The human person must be accepted in his parent’s act of union and love; the generation of a child must therefore be the fruit of that mutual self giving which is realized in the conjugal act wherein the spouses cooperate as servants and not as masters in the work of the Creator who is Love.”

Ethical Principles • Assist, do not replace, natural sexual intercourse • Any means that attempts to assist the act of sexual intercourse to achieve its natural end of procreation while keeping intact the exchange of love is morally acceptable. • Any means that replace, bypasses or substitutes for sexual intercourse in order to produce a child is morally unacceptable.

Ethical Principles • Church teaches that ethically acceptable forms of RT respect: – The dignity of newly conceived human life • Human being is to be respected and cared for from the moment of his/her existence – Forms of RT – harm human life by discarding, freezing or subjecting embryos to excessive risk

– Dignity of human life in its transmission (procreation) • Human life should only be generated through acts of sexual intercourse between husband and wife

Ethical Principles • Church is particularly concerned about forms of RT which use donor sperm or eggs – Contrary to the unity of marriage, to the dignity of the spouses, to the vocation of the parents, and to the child’s right to be conceived and brought to the world in marriage and from marriage (Donum Vitae II, A.2.)

Ethical Principles • Inviolability of Life – Human life is sacred

• Stewardship and Creativity – Man must take care and cultivate (improve) creatures

• Double Effect – A foreseen evil maybe allowed if the foreseen intended good effect is greater than and does not result from the evil effect

• Nonmaleficence – Do no harm

Ethical Principles • Beneficence – Prevent or remove harm or risk of harm; – do good

• Personalized Sexuality – Inseparable and integrated unitive and procreative dimensions of the conjugal act

Ethical Principles • Respect for person – Not to be denatured or destroyed – To be an end and not a means to an end

Ethical Principles • What is technologically possible is not therefore automatically right, moral and ethical • Just because certain technology is available does not automatically mean that it is morally justified or that it should be used.