Reproductive Technologies - Ethics of Embryo Adoption - Literature review Example

Reproductive Technologies Infertility is an escalating issue across the globe, especially in developed countries like Australia, the United s, and the United Kingdom. Boivin and colleagues (2007) reported that it is approximated that roughly 9 per cent of couples suffer from infertility, embodying the root of considerable personal misery to millions of people all over the world.1 Nevertheless, infertility is gradually being surpassed through developments in fertility management, specifically assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs). Reproductive technologies have advanced over the years into a group of conventional clinical procedures that have led to the birth of millions of offspring across the globe.2 According to the paper of Li and colleagues (2012), in 2010, 4.1 percent of all females who conceived in Australia sought some type of ART procedure.3 The issue of reproductive technologies is one of the issues that can be answered, challenged, and resolved by Catholic Social Teaching. It is somewhat acceptable, in fact laudable, to try to look for solutions to infertility. Infertility brings about a great deal of misery and grief for numerous married couples. The Bible is full of stories of women who experienced barrenness. These biblical stories are narrated to reveal God’s power and love; majority of these stories end joyfully as these women conceived despite old age, like Abraham’s wife, Sarah, and John the Baptist’s mother, Elizabeth. However, the scriptures say that there are limitations to acceptable means of getting pregnant. At present numerous methods and treatments have been created to solve infertility, but some of these have serious moral repercussions, and couples must be informed of such before seeking these methods.4 Every method must be evaluated to determine if it is really moral, specifically, whether or not it upholds human wellbeing and human reproduction. Views from Catholic Social Teaching For numerous people, reproductive technologies deepen uncertainties about the limitations of morally justifiable intrusion into fetal growth or life.5 The Instruction on Respect for Human Life in its Origin and on the Dignity of Procreation or Donum Vitae by the Vatican, made public in 1987 by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith so as to resolve issues for Roman Catholic bodies and Roman Catholics regarding the use of ARTs, expresses the concern that these methods includes an immoral intrusion with the core ‘essence’ of human life6: [The process that consists of] IVF and ET is brought about outside the bodies of the couple through actions of third parties whose competence and technical activity determine the success of the procedure. Such fertilization entrusts the life and identity of the embryo to the power of doctors and biologists and establishes the domination of technology over the origin and destiny of the human person.7 Donum Vitae did not deem the application of technology to cure infertility as immoral in itself. It held that several methods are ethical, whereas other, since they violate human dignity and the value of marriage, are wrong.8 The document teaches that if a particular medical procedure supports or guides the marital relationship to overcome infertility, it may be regarded moral; but if the method ‘displaces’ the marital relationship so as to create life, it is immoral.9 There is a direct connection in Catholic social teaching between who the human being has been made to be, and how s/he is to take part in human sexual intercourse, in order to take part in the procreative work of God.10 The reproduction of human life involves “a special character of its own, which derives from the special nature of the human person”11. As explained in the book Body, Soul, and Bioethics by Gilbert Meilaender, reproductive technologies threaten people’s capability of understanding the human aspect in the act of creating human life12: [W]hen we dismember procreation into its several parts and combine them in new and different ways, we simply enact a new myth of creation in which human beings are created with two separate faculties—one manifesting the deepening unity of the partners through sexual relations, the other giving rise to children through a “cool, deliberate act of man’s rational will.”… We should not assume… that those who “procreate” and those who—having severed procreation into its parts—“reproduce” are doing the same thing.13 Reproductive technologies defy the symbolic harmony of procreation, the sexual act, and marriage. In the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church, children are believed to be the actual expression of the profound love of married couples.14 The worry that methods like in-vitro fertilization and artificial insemination weaken the unity between marriage and parenthood by taking away sexual intercourse from procreation is at best as integral to the opposition of the Vatican to reproductive technologies as worries about the handling of embryos.15 As stated in Donum Vitae: [F]rom the moral point of view, procreation is deprived of its proper perfection when it is not desired as the fruit of the conjugal act, that is to say, of the specific act of the spouses’ union… The moral relevance of the link between the meanings of the conjugal act and between the goods of marriage, as well as the unity of the human being and the dignity of his origin, demand that the procreation of a human person be brought about as the fruit of a conjugal act specific to the love between spouses.16 The Church argues that even the honorable goals for which these reproductive technologies could be used cannot defend this form of damaging research and testing on procreation.17 Alternatives Based on Catholic Social Teaching Several morally defensible methods could be employed to treat infertility. For instance, surgical procedure can remedy tubal blockages in the reproductive system of men or women which hinder the occurrence of fertilization. Fertility drugs could also be administered, with the knowledge that multiple pregnancies could threaten the life of both the mother and the offspring.18 There are also numerous techniques of monitoring and identifying natural reproductive patterns to improve the likelihoods for overcoming infertility. For example, the Pope Paul VI Institute in Nebraska has successfully helped couples get pregnant though natural procedures.19 Many Catholic scholars believe that the Lower Tubal Ovum Transfer (LTOT) is moral. This requires relocating the woman’s egg outside a clog in the fallopian tube in order to assist conception.20 The Gamete Intra-Fallopian Transfer (GIFT) is another procedure, but more morally questionable. It requires extracting the sperm of the husband after marriage and removing an egg from the ovary of the wife. Sperm and egg are inserted in a small tube and then injected into the fallopian tube of the wife with the expectation that fertilization will take place.21 Several religious experts regard this to be a displacement of the marital deed, and thus morally unacceptable. Other religious experts believe that it helps the marital relationship, and thus justifiable. The Church knows that not every moral goal can be carried out through the law. In other words, it is not possible for civic law to replace individual morality. The Church also recognizes that specific moral issues should be accepted for they cannot be prohibited without a consequent greater immorality.22 Likewise, the Church argues that there are issues which should be controlled by law, for they create actual risks to social order and human existence. The Church already decides that reproductive technologies can influence fundamental components of social order and civil society, affect basic principles about innocent people’s right to life, and influence marital relationship and family aspects.23 From the point of view of Catholic Social Teaching, reproductive technologies impact absolute human rights, together with the child’s right to be conceived in a way appropriate to his/her dignity. It is the belief of the Church that reproductive technologies place human beings at risk of serious abuses of their human rights.24 Catholic Social Teaching stresses that it is somewhat doubtful that scholars in the field will control or monitor their behavior so as to adequately guarantee the protection of social order and individual rights; thus, legislation by the state is needed to safeguard such rights.25 This opinion is held by several scholars who would allow the basic procedures of reproductive technologies. However, although the Church proposes specific methods of reproduction be criminalized, it encourages people to keep in mind that “every child which comes into the world must in any case be accepted as a living gift of the divine Goodness and must be brought up with love.”26 The Roman Catholic institutions mainly proposed two kinds of laws concerning reproductive technologies. These laws embody the dangers of reproductive technologies to human life, as identified by the Church—dangers to the value of marriage, and dangers to human dignity.27 The Church has abundant sympathy for married couples who experience infertility. Yet, because of value for the institution of marriage and respect for human life, the Church decides that particular methods of attempting to conceive are unlawful and morally unjustifiable.28 Several of these methods in fact demand the forfeiture or sacrifice of human life, or experimentation with procreation and transforming human life into a ‘commodity’.29 They violate the self-worth and dignity of the individual. In developed countries, like Australia, there is an inclination to believe that all problems can be surpassed with the appropriate technology. However, children are not manufactured products or commodity that can be generated by machines. Children must originate from a marital act, alongside God. No person can ‘create’ God’s image, which is the reason why humanity ‘reproduce’ with the help of God.30 Procreation is a collaborative act among married couples and God. Children, in other words, must be naturally procreated not produced through technologies. Conclusions Some believe that the judgment of the Catholic Church on reproductive technologies is outdated, while others believe that the Church’s arguments are perfectionistic and uncompromising. However, there is an unmistakable covenant among human beings, not just with the Church’s standpoint as regards developing human life, but also with the worries of the Church about the outcomes of reproductive technologies for the married couple and the offspring. An unbiased assessment of the Catholic Social Teaching on reproductive technologies should recognize the genuine efforts of the Church to protect at-risk individuals. Still, the rift between the policy proposals of the Church and current law is massive. It is helpful to stress that besides the primarily divergent opinions and perspective of the Church and its detractors, there are other potential explanations why the ideas and decisions of the Church has been less powerful and effective in this arena. Bibliography Macaldowie, Alan. “Assisted Reproductive Technology in Australia and New Zealand 2011.” University of New South Wales. https://npesu.unsw.edu.au/sites/default/files/npesu/surveillances/Assisted%20reproductve%20technology%20in%20Australia%20and%20New%20Zealand%202011.pdf. Wildes, Kevin. Infertility: A Crossroad of Faith, Medicine, and Technology. New York: Springer Science & Business Media, 2012. Ryan, Maura. Ethics and Economics of Assisted Reproduction: The Cost of Longing. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2003. O’Rourke, Kevin and Philip Boyle. Medical Ethics: Sources of Catholic Teachings. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 1999. Allen, John. The Future Church: How Ten Trends are Revolutionizing the Catholic Church. New York: Crown Publishing Group, 2009. Dimech-Juchniewicz, Jean. Facing Infertility: A Catholic Approach. Boston, MA: O’Reilly Media, Inc., 2012. Boileau, David. Principles of Catholic Social Teaching. Milwaukee, WI: Marquette University Press, 1994. Brakman, Sarah Vaughan and Darlene Weaver. The Ethics of Embryo Adoption and the Catholic Tradition. New York: Springer, 2010. Rubio, Julie Hanlon. Family Ethics: Practices for Christians. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2010. Brady, Bernard. Essential Catholic Social Thought. New York: Orbis, 2008. Coleman, John. One Hundred Years of Catholic Social Thought: Celebration and Challenge. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1991. Cullen, Philomena et al. Catholic Social Justice: Theological and Practical Explorations. New York: Continuum, 2007. De Berri, Edward et al. Catholic Social Teaching: Our Best Kept Secret. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2004. Farley, Margaret. Just Love: A Framework for Christian Sexual Ethics. New York: Continuum, 2010. Himes, Kenneth, et al. Modern Catholic Social Teaching: Commentaries and Interpretations. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2005. Hollenbach, D. The Global Face of Public Faith: Politics, Human Rights, and Christian Ethics. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2003. Hoose, Bernard. Christian Ethics: An Introduction. New York: Continuum, 2000. Read More