Although two documents from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith have given instruction on the moral problems of artificial reproductive technologies and the importance of respecting the lives of cryopreserved embryos, no definitive judgment has been made regarding the possibility of rescuing those embryos by means of embryo transfer into the uterus of a willing woman. This essay offers an analysis of the morality of embryo transfer in light of the ethical principles of St. Thomas Aquinas and argues (...) that the proper use of our generative potential is only safeguarded by being restricted to marital intercourse. The arguments of those who favor the adoption model are considered and rejected in light of a Thomistic analysis of the categories of paternity, maternity, and filiation. National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly 14.4 : 673–695. (shrink)

According to the New Natural Law theory, marriage is a basic good. This means that marital society is an end in itself, and that marital intercourse instantiates that end by making the married couple to be “one-flesh.” This one-flesh union finds its intrinsic fulfillment in the procreation of children, but should not be seen as a mere means to the begetting and rearing of offspring. This view of marriage represents a departure from the traditional understanding of marriage as having its (...) ultimate raison d’être in the begetting and rearing of offspring, and has significant implications for judgments concerning the liceity of embryo adoption/rescue. This paper offers a critical appraisal of the thesis that marriage is a basic good. (shrink)

This essay responds to an article by Elizabeth Bothamley Rex titled “The Magisterial Liceity of Embryo Adoption”, specifically to Rex’s critique that his objections to the liceity of embryo transfer distort magisterial documents. He then draws out the implications of the differences between his view and Rex’s on the relation between maternity and pregnancy. The essay concludes by pointing out that, if they are to change their minds, opponents of embryo adoption need to be convinced that it is morally licit (...) to impregnate, or “introduce an order to birth,” in a woman by means other than the marriage act. (shrink)