Post No. 85 (Artificial Insemination)

Or IVF, if you want to call a spade a soil transferring implement, is the latest “moral” issue to wash up on the shores of Catholic Malta …

Let’s get things straight off the bat. Children – making and raising – are the largest responsibility of a married couple.

Unfortunately some marriages have remained childless, despite the couple’s desire.

I can sympathise with the couple’s suffering, but I cannot begin to understand what it means. This leads me seamlessly to the point I wanted to make.

It is very easy to fall into the trap of justifying the means by the end.At the risk of appearing callous, I must point out that suffering does not justify immoral actions.

If we’re going to talk about suffering, morality and justification we’ll have to bring out a “ruler” – something with which we can compare something else and call it “wrong” or “right”. I’m what would pass as a practising Catholic – only just – so it’s only natural for me to bring out that ruler.

For a comprehensive treatment of the subject – as expounded by the Catholic Church – you could do worse than to read Humanae vitae, Donum vitae and the Catechism.

Let’s assume that nobody’s pushing for heterologous (gamete donors are not married to each other) IVF or surrogacy (the woman bearing the baby is not married to the sperm donor). I’ll be talking about homologous (gamete donors are married to each other) IVF.

The Church says that children should be the “natural product” of sex between married couples. They are a gift from God and they are not commodities.

A couple who subjects itself to artificial insemination is allowing this process to be “hijacked” by science and technology. Bear in mind that science and technology are only “good” as long as they remain “subservient” to humans. It is also important to note that this is not  “therapeutic” treatment. It is not aimed at making the couple more fertile.

I will not go into the techincal specifics of artificial insemination. We all know that in some cases they are blatantly immoral. But there is one thing I must really share with you.

Did you know that in some cases they use ova from aborted (female) babies?

If that isn’t ironic I don’t know what is.

Toodle-oo.