Can a Catholic Woman Adopt an Embryo?

[Listener]

In last night’s debate, John Kerry was arguing that since leftover embryos from in-vitro fertilization would be destroyed anyway, they could be used for stem cell research. Of course, I don’t agree with this, and the idea makes me sick. Then I got to thinking, what does the Church say should be done with these leftover embryos? I realize that the Church forbids in-virto fertilization, but it must have an opinion about what should be done with these embryos once they exist. It seems to me that the options would be to destroy them, freeze them, or implant them in someone. I remember reading somewhere that some non-Catholic Christian women were trying to “adopt” some of these embryos by having them implanted. Since you would be carrying someone else’s child, is this practice of “adopting” a leftover embryo forbidden by the Catholic Church?

 

[The_Hidden_Life]

Quick answer: there is no clear consensus. Two main options seem in accordance with natural law. One, encourage adoption of the embryos by unrelated parents. Two, allow “nature to take its course” and defrost the fertilized eggs and let the embryos die naturally. You could check with the JPII institute for reproductive technology (or something like that) for more info about the ethics.

Kerry’s reasoning on the entire Life Issues segment made me ill. “I’m a Catholic, Catholicism has been a big part of my life…yet I refuse to adhere to anything the Catholic church teaches on this issue!” Bush at least mentioned that reducing the rate of abortions is an actual goal!

 

[luke2219]

I’m no authority, but it seems to me that would be a very good thing. The manner in which these children where conceived is illicit and immoral, but that can not prevent us from trying to save them. Catholic couples then could adopt these children and have them implanted. However, we would have to be careful that we in no way appear to be approving the method in which they were conceived. In fact, if we were adopting these children, we might be accused of approving in-vitro procedures since we’re benefiting from the results.

Since these are children, we cannot destroy them or experiment on them. I suppose the only thing we can do is keep them frozen until someone adopts them and they are implanted. What other moral choice do we have?

So, it would be a praiseworth thing to adopt these children, but we’d have to be clear that we are only saving them from death and not approving of their illicit conception.

Pax et bonum