weller2:
Problem is, what I have written above is a heresy according to the Council of Trent:
This view has been reiterated in Humani Generis (in a different context), which actually references the above decree of Trent:
From where I sit, an IVF baby, and even more so a clone is a true man who did not take their origin through natural generation from Adam, as its creation involved an obviously unnatural step. Hence the sentiment that IVF babies and/or clones are not true men (i.e. lack soul), because acknowledging their full humanity would be equivalent to a formal heresy.
In other words, we have new Gallileo affair. Science has discovered (produced) things which cannot exist according to Catholic theology. Even worse: saying that they do exist is a formal heresy, which in turn carries an automatic latae sentenciae excommunication.
No not quite. Let’s take it one by one. First, from the Council of Trent:
- If any one asserts, that this sin of Adam,–which in its origin is one, and being transfused into all by propagation, not by imitation, is in each one as his own, --is taken away either by the powers of human nature, or by any other remedy than the merit of the one mediator, our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath reconciled us to God in his own blood, made unto us justice, santification, and redemption; or if he denies that the said merit of Jesus Christ is applied, both to adults and to infants, by the sacrament of baptism rightly administered in the form of the church; let him be anathema.
What’s being condemned here is Pelagianism, which taught that original sin is not passed on to Adam’s descendants, but instead it’s merely a bad example and we inherit it by imitation. The Church is teaching that original sin is truly passed on to all of Adam’s descendants. It’s not something that only affected him.
Far from being contrary to Church teaching, believing clones and IVF babies inherit original sin is consistent with it. In fact, it would actually be heresy and contrary to the Council to say that there are some human beings who are descended from Adam and don’t have original sin. Clones and IVF babies are truly descendants of Adam (it’s impossible to be a human being and not be Adam’s descendant) and therefore they do inherit original sin. They are members of the human race, which is a fallen race.
As far as Humani Generis goes, it wasn’t dealing with the issue of original sin at all, or even modern reproduction. I’ll quote the relevant part again:
- When, however, there is question of another conjectural opinion, namely polygenism, the children of the Church by no means enjoy such liberty. For the faithful cannot embrace that opinion which maintains either that after Adam there existed on this earth true men who who did not take their origin through natural generation from him as from the first parent of all, or that Adam represents a certain number of first parents.
You made the claim that the existence of IVF babies contradicts this, but that’s not accurate. The pope is condemning the theory of polygenism which states that after Adam there were true men who were not descendants of him. The pope is not teaching that if someone is conceived and born outside the natural order they are not human beings or descendants of Adam. Rather, he’s teaching that all human beings trace their ancestry back to Adam, and not to some other humans who were not descended naturally from him.
As I already pointed out, IVF babies and clones
ARE true descendants of Adam, every human being who has ever lived is. Sexual reproduction or lack of it doesn’t change that fact. That’s impossible, and neither of these documents are making that claim.
Therefore, it’s not heresy to say people conceived out of the natural order are true human beings and inherit original sin, but actually very much in line with it.
