Catholics and Embryo Adoption

Frozen
Embryos and Embryo Adoption

• While Donum Vitae
  does not explicitly prohibit embryo adoption, does
  it implicitly prohibit embryo adoption? The following
  passage is particularly noted: "In consequence of the fact
  that they have been produced in vitro, those embryos
  which are not transferred into the body of the mother and are
  called ‘spare’ are exposed to an absurd fate, with no
  possibility of their being offered safe means of survival
  which can be licitly pursued."1 
   
• Is embryo adoption a form of
  cooperation with the immoral IVF process? Is the entire IVF
  process intrinsically immoral, or only the creation of new
  life outside the conjugal act?
   
• Is embryo adoption a form of
  surrogacy, which the Church teaches is immoral? 2  
   
• Does embryo adoption violate
  the unity of marriage, the dignity of the spouses, and their
  fidelity to each other? Though the "adoptive" parents have the
  best of intentions, could embryo adoption be considered a form
  of adultery? 3 
   
• Is the necessity of prolonged
  cryopreservation (while waiting for the adoptive mother to
  reach a fertile period so that the embryo can be implanted) a
  further affront to the embryo’s dignity?
   
• Is the cryopreservation of
  these embryos "extraordinary means" (cf. Catechism,
  no. 2278)? In other words, does there exist a moral
  obligation to keep the embryos frozen—which in and of itself
  is a violation of their dignity—until a moral solution is
  found?4 

Catholic moral theologians and
ethicists who adhere to the Church’s teachings have different
answers to these questions. All recognize that this is a
complicated moral issue with no simple answer, since it arises
from a series of immoral actions. None of those taking part in
the debate question the good intentions of those wishing to
adopt. Nor do they deny the dire circumstance the embryos are
in. What they are questioning is whether the object
chosen—transferring the embryo from the freezer to a woman’s
womb—is a morally acceptable solution to the problem. Are the
means (embryo transfer) to the end (saving a human life)
justifiable?

Even if the Church were to
declare the adoption of frozen embryos morally licit, other
questions arise. Would approval of embryo adoption be seen as
approval of IVF? Could it be used to justify overproduction and
freezing of human embryos? Is it possible to monitor and
regulate the relationship between those centers which illicitly
produce embryos and those centers which licitly transfer them
into adoptive mothers? Who would be eligible to adopt these
embryos: married couples only, singles, heterosexuals, lesbian
unions, or the whole myriad of possible partnerships?

The dilemma of what to do with
the frozen embryos stems from a series of violations of the
moral law—from the creation of the embryos outside of the
conjugal act, to their freezing, to the very real danger of
their destruction. In an address to the 1996 Symposium on "Evangelium
Vitae and Law," Pope John Paul II stated that "there seems
to be no morally licit solution regarding the human destiny of
the thousands and thousands of ‘frozen’ embryos which are and
remain subjects of essential rights and should therefore be
protected by law as human persons." He appealed to the
conscience of the world’s scientific authorities and in
particular to doctors, that the production of human embryos be
halted. He also called on all jurists to work "so that States
and international institutions will legally recognize the
natural rights of the very origin of human life and will
likewise defend the inalienable rights which these thousands of
‘frozen’ embryos have intrinsically acquired from the moment of
fertilization." The Pope recognized the many complications
inherent in trying to right such a tangled situation. He
maintained that the production of human embryos must be stopped,
and the right to life of those embryos that have been created
must be protected.

 1 Donum Vitae, part
1, no. 5. How are we to understand this passage? Moral
theologian Msgr. William B. Smith argues that this passage
provides a "first principled insight indicating that this
volunteer ‘rescue’ is not a licit option." (See Msgr.
William B. Smith, "Rescue the Frozen?" Homiletic and Pastoral
Review 96.1 [October, 1995], 72-74, quoted in William E.
May, Catholic Bioethics and the Gift of Human Life [Our
Sunday Visitor, 2000])

Moral theologians Germain Grisez, Geoffrey Surtees, and William
E. May disagree with Msgr. Smith’s conclusion, saying he takes
the passage out of its proper context. (See Grisez’s answer to
"Should a woman try to bear her dead sister’s frozen embryo?" in
his The Way of the Lord Jesus, Vol. 3, Difficult Moral
Questions. See also Geoffrey Surtees, "Adoption of a Frozen
Embryo" in Homiletic and Pastoral Review 96
[August-September 1996], 8-9. Additionally, Grisez and Surtees
are cited in May’s Catholic Bioethics and the Gift of Human
Life.)

 2 Msgr. Smith and Fr. Tadeusz
Pacholczyk argue that this is the case. See Msgr. Smith, "Rescue
the Frozen?" 72-74; "Response," Homiletic and Pastoral Review,
96:11-12 (August-September, 1996), 16-17; and Fr. Pacholczyk,
"Frozen Embryos Adoptions Are Morally Objectionable," in The
Catholic as Citizen: Debating the Issues of Justice. Proceedings
from the 26th Annual Conference of Catholic Scholars, ed.
Kenneth Whitehead (St. Augustine’s Press, 2004)

 3 Nicholas Tonti-Filippini
examines this question in his article "The Embryo Rescue Debate:
Impregnating Women, Ectogenesis, and Restoration from Suspended
Animation."

 4 Some moral theologians and
ethicists have speculated whether baptizing the embryos and
allowing them to thaw (and therefore die) is an acceptable
solution. Fr. Pacholczyk, for example, suggests that this is not
a true solution, as the act of thawing "is the direct and
primary cause of death" ("Frozen Embryo Adoptions Are Morally
Objectionable"). Tonti-Filipini, on the other hand, suggests
that it is acceptable to allow the embryos to be thawed and
"restored to their natural dynamic state, a state more fitting
their sacredness as human beings than the state of frozen and
anhydrous suspended animation," knowing that the embryos would
then die ("The Embryo Rescue Debate: Impregnating Women,
Ectogenesis, and Restoration from Suspended Animation").

Date created: 3/7/2006
Date edited: 9/26/2007