Catholics please help me?

Question

What is the rule of surrogacy in the Catholic Church, is it ok or not?

I asked a question about surrogacy and someone mentioned the Catholic Church, see link below, so I was wondering is it against the Church or not?


http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AijsAr70qh8nybumFA.G6a_sy6IX?qid=20070606163744AAoDmZC

Answer 1

The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches:

The gift of a child

2373 Sacred Scripture and the Church's traditional practice see in large families a sign of God's blessing and the parents' generosity.163

2374 Couples who discover that they are sterile suffer greatly. "What will you give me," asks Abraham of God, "for I continue childless?"164 And Rachel cries to her husband Jacob, "Give me children, or I shall die!"165

2375 Research aimed at reducing human sterility is to be encouraged, on condition that it is placed "at the service of the human person, of his inalienable rights, and his true and integral good according to the design and will of God."166

2376 Techniques that entail the dissociation of husband and wife, by the intrusion of a person other than the couple (donation of sperm or ovum, SURROGATE uterus), are gravely immoral. These techniques (heterologous artificial insemination and fertilization) infringe the child's right to be born of a father and mother known to him and bound to each other by marriage. They betray the spouses' "right to become a father and a mother only through each other."167

2377 Techniques involving only the married couple (homologous artificial insemination and fertilization) are perhaps less reprehensible, yet remain morally unacceptable. They dissociate the sexual act from the procreative act. The act which brings the child into existence is no longer an act by which two persons give themselves to one another, but one that "entrusts the life and identity of the embryo into the power of doctors and biologists and establishes the domination of technology over the origin and destiny of the human person. Such a relationship of domination is in itself contrary to the dignity and equality that must be common to parents and children."168 "Under the moral aspect procreation is deprived of its proper perfection when it is not willed as the fruit of the conjugal act, that is to say, of the specific act of the spouses' union . . . . Only respect for the link between the meanings of the conjugal act and respect for the unity of the human being make possible procreation in conformity with the dignity of the person."169

2378 A child is not something owed to one, but is a gift. The "supreme gift of marriage" is a human person. A child may not be considered a piece of property, an idea to which an alleged "right to a child" would lead. In this area, only the child possesses genuine rights: the right "to be the fruit of the specific act of the conjugal love of his parents," and "the right to be respected as a person from the moment of his conception."170

2379 The Gospel shows that physical sterility is not an absolute evil. Spouses who still suffer from infertility after exhausting legitimate medical procedures should unite themselves with the Lord's Cross, the source of all spiritual fecundity. They can give expression to their generosity by adopting abandoned children or performing demanding services for others.

Answer 2

Surrogacy would be an illicit means of reproduction because it would basically "use" another person as a means to an end, and not take into account that, while the genetic material would come from legal and biological parents, there would still be a physical and spiritual bond between the woman who provides for the development of the child in her womb and gives birth to the child. This woman, from the point of view of the Church would be the mother.

Plus the child has the right to be born of only one father and one mother from both the legal and biological point of view. (Compendium of Social Doctrine, 235).

Also, the Church teaches against surrogacy because, in this case, the methods used to fertilize the eggs would separate the unitive act of sex from the procreative aspect. Not all methods of assistance to procreation do this, which is why some methods are morally acceptable to the Church. (ibid)

Imagine, in surrogacy, the number of embryos created to be implanted in the uterus of the surrogate without any way of being sure that they will indeed implant and result in pregnancy. This tends to be an affront to the dignity of life in its earliest stage.

Answer 3

No, it is not acceptable for Catholics to participate in a surrogate conception of a child, unless it's a traditional adoption of a parentless child (either orphaned or parents have signed away rights).

The reason why is that surrogacy involves either an adulterous sexual experience or the use of "fertilization technologies" that are abusive toward the human embryo.

Answer 4

See below for a link. One source I saw spoke of the necessity for procreation and unity in sexuality to be present in every sexual encounter -- or openness to procreation.

Anyway I'm not Catholic, but I'd have a problem with in vitro fertilization because they usually make extra embryos which are not used. I suppose if your daughter used your niece's husband's sperm through artificial insemination (this can be low-tech, but children are reading) I'd find it complicated but more acceptable morally. Anyway. Doesn't Vatican II say everyone has to follow his/her own conscience? I guess seeking God's will through prayer would be the Protestant answer.

Answer 5

here it is from official Catholic letter on the the Respect for Human life (Donum Vitae, 1987) :

Is "Surrogate"* Motherhood Morally Licit?

No, for the same reasons which lead one to reject artificial fertilization: for it is contrary to the unity of marriage and to the dignity of the procreation of the human person.

Surrogate motherhood represents an objective failure to meet the obligations of maternal love, of conjugal fidelity and of responsible motherhood; it offends the dignity and the right of the child to be conceived, carried in the womb, brought into the world and brought up by his own parents; it sets up, to the detriment of families, a division between the physical, psychological and moral elements which constitute those families.
_________

*By "surrogate mother" the Instruction means:


the woman who carries in pregnancy an embryo implanted in her uterus and who is genetically a stranger to the embryo because it has been obtained through the union of the gametes of "donors." She carries the pregnancy with a pledge to surrender the baby once it is born to the party who commissioned or made the agreement for the pregnancy.


the woman who carries in pregnancy an embryo to whose procreation she has contributed the donation of her own ovum, fertilized through insemination with the sperm of a man other than her husband. She carries the pregnancy with the pledge to surrender the child once it is born to the party who commissioned or made the agreement for the pregnancy.


why does she not adopt?

Answer 6

don't know about that one. I would say it would be better to ask a priest but, I think personally it would be alright. I think this is kind of what the one woman who was faced with the other woman stealing her baby because the woman's was dead and so the woman who was the real Mother told Solomon to give the baby to the other woman for the life of the baby so I would think it would be o.k. But then again, what do I know?

Answer 7

No, not acceptable. See number 3:
http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_19870222_respect-for-human-life_en.html

Answer 8

Pastor Billy says: very simply not acceptable period.

Answer 9

Sorry I've got to go. I'm not sure this article will help...

http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=4463

Answer 10

Check with a priest. That's your best bet.

God's peace and love be with your and yours.