The strength of this collection of essays is its careful consideration, from a variety of perspectives within the Catholic tradition, of the practice of embryo adoption. It approaches the question in an open and reasonable way by allowing proponents of diverse positions within the tradition. This method both sheds a great deal of light on the particular question and at the same time introduces the reader to the relevant general principles that guide Catholic moral thought.
What should we do with the hundreds of thousands of frozen human embryos held in fertility clinics around the world? One solution would be adoption. Would such a course of action be moral? That is the question faced in this volume. The leading thinkers in Catholic bioethics divide into two opposing camps in a great debate over biotechnology, sexuality, marriage, and the right to life. Book jacket.
This volume comprises various viewpoints representing a Catholic perspective on contemporary practices in medicine and biomedical research. The Roman Catholic Church has had a significant impact upon the formulation and application of moral values and principles to a wide range of controversial issues in bioethics. Catholic leaders, theologians, and bioethicists have elucidated and marshaled arguments to support the Church’s definitive positions on several bioethical issues, such as abortion, euthanasia, and reproductive cloning. Not all bioethical issues, however, have been definitively addressed by Catholic authorities, and some Church teachings allow for differing applications in diverse circumstances. Moreover, as new biomedical technologies emerge, Church authorities rely on experts in science, medicine, philosophy, theology, law, and other disciplines to advise them. Such experts continue to debate issues related to reproduction, genetics, end-of-life care, and health care policy. This volume will be a valuable resource for scholars in bioethics or Catholic studies, who will benefit from the nuanced arguments offered based on the latest research. This volume is also instructive for students entering the field to become aware of the founding philosophical and theological principles informing the Catholic bioethical worldview.
This book discusses the ethical dilemmas relating to the use of frozen human embryos. During an IVF process, after fertilization of the eggs, the embryos that are not needed immediately can be placed in the freezer to be preserved for future use. Regarding the fate of frozen human embryos, the possibilities include: i) donating them for stem cell research or for treatment of disease; ii) using them as a means for treatment of infertility; iii) permitting their destruction; iv) allowing them to thaw and die; v) allowing them to continue to stay in the freezer and vi) utilizing them in a form of prenatal adoption. As the book reveals, it is only the proposal to adopt the embryos that can be considered in terms of moral permissibility because the rest do not respect and protect the dignity, integrity and life of the human embryo. The book focuses on the proposal for prenatal adoption. The anthropological dimension of adoption reveals that the ethics of adoption is based on gift and acceptance and that adoption is a concrete manner of expressing love and solidarity. Thus, an abandoned child is received with love to be permanently a member of the adoptive family. The husband and wife who did not beget the abandoned child, generate him/her through the intrinsic generative power of their love. With this, it was demonstrated in this book that prenatal adoption is compatible with the dynamic of adoption. Prenatal adoption as Dignitas personae reveals is praiseworthy because it protects and saves human lives, but it presents various problems. Based on the declarations of the Catholic Magisterium, there is a prolific Catholic debate on the morality of prenatal adoption. Some agree it is morally permissible, while others disagree. Most arguments in the Catholic debate are centred on whether prenatal adoption separates the unitive and procreative meanings of marriage. This book proposes a reconsideration of prenatal adoption, sticking strictly to the Magisterial prudential judgement.
The two original volumes of the Encyclopedia of Catholic Social Thought, Social Science, and Social Policy were published in 2007. Those two volumes included 848 entries from nearly 300 contributors and included a wide range of entries in three general categories: entries exploring Catholic social thought at a theoretical level, entries reflecting the learning of various social science and humanistic disciplines as this learning relates to Catholic social thought, and entries examining specific social policy questions. This third, supplemental volume continues the approach of the original two. First, the volume includes entries that explore Catholic social thought at its broadest, most theoretical level; for example, an entry on Pope Benedict’s important social encyclical Caritas in Veritate. Second, the volume includes entries that discuss recent social science research that bears on issues important to Catholic social thought; for example, an entry on the social costs of pornography draws on recent research on the topic. Third, the volume includes entries discussing specific issues of social policy that have become increasingly important in recent years; for example, an entry on embryo adoption and/or rescue. This third volume contains 202 entirely new entries from over 100 contributors. The contributors include distinguished scholars such as Father Robert John Araujo, S.J. (Loyola University of Chicago), Father Kevin L. Flannery, S.J. (Gregorian University), Robert P. George (Princeton University), William E. May (John Paul Institute and the Culture of Life Foundation), D. Q. McInerny (Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary), and Michael Novak (Ave Maria University). The work will appeal to anyone who is looking for a clear and accurate introduction to Catholic social thought.
It seems at times unthinkable that a book like this would have to be written, although, I am relatively sure that Aldous Huxley foresaw its necessity, when he wrote Brave New World. But, the time has arrived where babies are manufactured in sterile facilities and tested for their fitness for life in the world. While we have not yet advanced sufficiently in biological sciences to entirely forego natural gestation in favor of prenatal programming process which Huxley describes, we have reached the point where those unwanted embryos are: set aside; freeze dried; and abandoned or destroyed when they do not meet the standard set for a child. This book affirms the intrinsic goodness of the life of each embryo and explores from the Catholic perspective the possibility of frozen embryo rescue by adoption. It looks at those arguments, which see the elements of in vitro fertilization as so contrary to the faith and the natural law as to be irrecoverably intrinsically evil, and rejects those in favor of a small and narrow path of adoption to fully re-incorporate a child, through the love of a mother and a father, into the society which abandoned it.
"As I write this introduction, the third season of the Israeli series, Schtisel, has arrived on Netflix, eagerly awaited by viewers around the world who would never have imagined how caught up they would get by this family drama of four generations of ultra-Orthodox Jews living in Jerusalem. One episode focuses on Ruchami and Hanina, a young couple who have been married for five years, but without children. It turns out that pregnancy and childbirth would threaten Ruchami's life. She is using an IUD, but she keeps threatening to have it removed, risking her life to become a mother. Finally, with great reluctance, Hanina visits the rebbe, the spiritual authority in their community, to discuss the possibility of using a surrogate. They are, says the rebbe, caught between two "non-ideal" situations: surrogacy, normally forbidden, is non-ideal, but so is Ruchami's unhappiness and the possibility that she might go ahead and take the risk, which is also forbidden"--
The Ethics of Pregnancy, Abortion and Childbirth addresses the unique moral questions raised by pregnancy and its intimate bodily nature. From assisted reproduction to abortion and ‘vital conflict’ resolution to more everyday concerns of the pregnant woman, this book argues for pregnancy as a close human relationship with the woman as guardian or custodian. Four approaches to pregnancy are explored: ‘uni-personal’, ‘neighborly’, ‘maternal’ and ‘spousal’. The author challenges not only the view that there is only one moral subject to consider in pregnancy, but also the idea that the location of the fetus lacks all inherent, unique significance. It is argued that the pregnant woman is not a mere ‘neighbor’ or helpful stranger to the fetus but is rather already in a real familial relationship bringing real familial rights and obligations. If the status of the fetus is conclusive for at least some moral questions raised by pregnancy, so too are facts about its bodily relationship with, and presence in, the woman who supports it. This lucid, accessible and original book explores fundamental ethical issues in a rich and often neglected area of philosophy in ways of interest also to those from other disciplines.
A Defense of Dignity argues that all human beings should be treated with respect and considers how this belief should be applied in controversial cases.
