catholicsphere

Today a baby boy was born to a woman who was displaced by Hurricane Katrina. The baby was a frozen embryo rescued from the flood — one of several embryos the woman had frozen after in vitro fertilization.

The Catholic position is, firstly, against in vitro fertilization because it robs the human being of dignity, especially since multiple lives are typically created because the procedure is expensive and the likelihood of fertilization is increased if multiple eggs are attempted to be fertilized. Sometimes these lives are discarded, or frozen for later implantation.

Freezing embryos also robs these tiny human beings of their dignity, whether they are to be later “thawed” and implanted or not.

There is the question that is sometimes floated around about “rescuing” these embryos, and lately there has come the question of using them for research instead of just discarding them.

It should be obvious that doing research on them is against nature and their due dignity. But, should they be allowed to die.

There is currently debate among Catholic theologians over whether it is acceptable to “adopt” the hundreds of thousands of frozen embryos. One answer says that it is unacceptable to adopt these embryos, the other says that it respects and “rescues” life.

My own personal feeling on this is that it would not be undignified to allow these lives to die. Allowing “adoption” of these embryos, while admirable and a testimony to the truth of these being human life, brings with it a whole host of issues that completely change the landscape of our society. For this reason, I believe it better to allow these to die with dignity and not further complicate the issues and consequences that adoption will result in, particularly the slippery slope of decline in values.

[tags]frozen embryos, adoption, faith, in vitro fertilization, pro life, catholic, theology, morals, values, catholicsphere, doctrine[/tags]