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When Mother Teresa visited New Bedford, Mass., in June 1995, she told those of us gathered at St. Lawrence Martyr Church: “Abortion is the greatest evil of today.”
Never one to mince words, Mother Teresa’s courage, truthfulness, and charity were palpable. Parents today need similar fortitude, honesty, and love to be able to discuss the hard topic of unplanned pregnancies and abortion with their children.
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During World War II, if a contractor had been asked to construct a building knowing that it would serve as a gas chamber in Auschwitz, it goes without saying that he ought not agree to do it.
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Couples who struggle to get pregnant are turning with greater frequency to the in vitro fertilization (IVF) industry for assistance.
In some cases, they can end up feeling they are “too pregnant” when twins, triplets, or quads arise. This occurs from the practice of implanting more than one embryo at a time to improve pregnancy success rates.
A multiplet pregnancy can involve significant risk, both for the children in utero, and for the mother. Because of these risks, the pregnant mother will sometimes be advised to opt for a “selective reduction,” where potassium chloride is injected into one or two of the growing babies, to cause their hearts to seize, followed by death and the gradual re-absorption of their bodies during the remainder of the pregnancy.
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| Bishop Robert C. Morlino gave a talk on the “Ethics of IVF and Surrogacy” at Holy Family Church in Waterloo on May 18. Here he is pictured with Fr. Jorge Miramontes, pastor. (Photo by Laura Karlen) |
WATERLOO — Fewer areas of ethics have become more complex than those surrounding reproductive technologies. How can the Catholic faithful begin to recognize the problems with advancements such as in vitro fertilization, artificial insemination, and surrogacy and truly understand the Church’s position?
It takes a good teacher. On Thursday, May 18, Bishop Robert C. Morlino drew on his doctoral studies in Moral Theology and specialization in bioethics to teach on the issue of surrogacy at Holy Family Catholic Parish in Waterloo.
In early 2016, an existing surrogacy agency, Pink & Blue Surrogacy and Fertility LLC, moved into a storefront on the main street in Waterloo. The agency matches intended parents who desire a child with a surrogate mother, a woman who is contracted and compensated to carry a child —usually conceived through in vitro fertilization — for the intended parents.
At first glance, Bishop Morlino said this can sound like an “act of charity” on the part of the surrogate mother, who is enabling a couple to bring home a baby. But, a closer look reveals surrogacy’s “moral evil.”
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Patients who face serious illnesses are sometimes attracted to alternative medicines, also referred to as “holistic” or “new-age” medicines.
These can include treatments like homeopathy, hypnosis, “energy therapies” like Reiki, acupuncture, and herbal remedies, to name just a few.
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Patients who face serious illnesses are sometimes attracted to alternative medicines, also referred to as “holistic” or “new-age” medicines.
These can include treatments like homeopathy, hypnosis, “energy therapies” like Reiki, acupuncture, and herbal remedies, to name just a few.
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Men and women clearly need each other and naturally gravitate towards arrangements of mutual support and lives of shared intimacy.
Because women are frequently the immediate guardians of the next generation, they have a particular need to ascertain if there will be steady support from a man prior to giving themselves sexually to him. The bond of marriage is ordered towards securing this critical element of ongoing commitment and support.
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Sometimes when there is infertility in marriage, couples make the decision to seek out the services of a surrogate in order to have a child.
A surrogate is a woman who agrees to be implanted with an embryo produced by in vitro fertilization (IVF) and to hand over the newborn baby to the couple upon completion of the gestation and birth.
In recent years, gestational surrogacy has become a multi-million dollar industry, attracting a broad clientele ranging from married couples to single women, gay couples to anyone else with the desire for a baby and the ability to finance the undertaking.
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Some humanitarian tragedies occur quietly and “in the background,” only gradually coming to light years or decades after serious harm has already occurred, like nerve damage in infants exposed to lead paint or cancers in patients who were exposed to asbestos.
More recently, the humanitarian tragedy of hundreds of thousands of embryonic human beings frozen and abandoned in fertility clinics has come to light — “orphans in ice” arising from the decades-long practice of in vitro fertilization (IVF).
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In the famous story of David and Goliath, Goliath boasts to the young David that after he kills him, he will give his flesh “to the birds of the sky and beasts of the field.” He conveys his profound disdain for David by speaking this way, deprecating even his corpse.
This offends our sensibility that dead bodies should not be desecrated, but should instead be respectfully buried. Proper disposition and care of another’s body also manifests our Christian faith in the resurrection of that body on the Last Day.
