Gaylinel Bongyad

II – A
 INFERTILITY
• Inability of a couple to produce a child
of their own
• The condition of being unable to
produce an offspring
• Inability to conceive, carry or deliver a
child
 INFERTILITY
• CAUSES
– Low sperm counts due to environmental
factors
– Congenital abnormalities in the
reproductive system
– Past injuries to the uterus, ovaries or
fallopian tubes
– Abortion or contraceptive use
– Normal decline of the woman’s fertility
(menopause)
 Reproductive Technology (RT)
• Various medical
procedures that are
designed to alleviate
fertility
– Artificial insemination
– In vitro fertilization (IVF)
– Surrogate motherhood
 Ethical Principles
• CATHOLIC CHURCH
Recognizes the goodness of the natural desire
of a married couple to bring forth new life and
have a child of their own

- Goodness of the gift of life of children and

goodness of parent’s desire to have a child
whom they can love and raise to maturity
 Ethical Principles
• Humanae Vitae (1968)
– Pope Paul VI
• There is an inseparable connection, willed by God,
between two aspects or “meanings” of sexual
intercourse: UNITIVE and
PROCREATIVE
• This inseparable link between the two meanings
inherent in the act of sexual intercourse has various
important moral consequences for free human
actions that involve our sexual powers
 Ethical Principles
• Inseparable link between the potential for
our sexual capacities to communicate love
and communicate life

– Ground of the church’s position on ART

– Intervention upon the procreative process
should respect this link
 Ethical Principles
• Donum Vitae II,B, 4,7
– “The human person must be
accepted in his parent’s act
of union and love; the
generation of a child must
therefore be the fruit of that
mutual self giving which is
realized in the conjugal act
wherein the spouses
cooperate as servants and
not as masters in the work
of the Creator who is Love.”
 Ethical Principles
• Assist, do not replace, natural sexual
intercourse
• Any means that attempts to assist the act of
sexual intercourse to achieve its natural end of
procreation while keeping intact the exchange of
love is morally acceptable.
• Any means that replace, bypasses or
substitutes for sexual intercourse in order to
produce a child is morally unacceptable.
 Ethical Principles
• Church teaches that ethically acceptable
forms of RT respect:
– The dignity of newly conceived human life
• Human being is to be respected and cared for from
the moment of his/her existence
– Forms of RT – harm human life by discarding, freezing or
subjecting embryos to excessive risk
– Dignity of human life in its transmission
(procreation)
• Human life should only be generated through acts
of sexual intercourse between husband and wife
 Ethical Principles
• Church is particularly concerned about
forms of RT which use donor sperm or
eggs
– Contrary to the unity of marriage, to the
dignity of the spouses, to the vocation of the
parents, and to the child’s right to be
conceived and brought to the world in
marriage and from marriage
(Donum Vitae II, A.2.)
 Ethical Principles
• Inviolability of Life
– Human life is sacred
• Stewardship and Creativity
– Man must take care and cultivate (improve) creatures
• Double Effect
– A foreseen evil maybe allowed if the foreseen
intended good effect is greater than and does not
result from the evil effect
• Nonmaleficence
– Do no harm
 Ethical Principles
• Beneficence
– Prevent or remove harm or risk of harm;
– do good

• Personalized Sexuality
– Inseparable and integrated unitive and
procreative dimensions of the conjugal act
 Ethical Principles
• Respect for person
– Not to be denatured or destroyed
– To be an end and not a means to an end
 Ethical Principles
• What is technologically possible is not
therefore automatically right, moral and
ethical

• Just because certain technology is

available does not automatically mean that
it is morally justified or that it should be
used.