IMPUGNACION DE LAS NOTIFICACIONES

“Fertile” means being able to get pregnant. “Infertile” means that a couple cannot get pregnant despite their efforts to do so. Infertility affects about 10% of married couples and can be caused by medical problems of either the wife or the husband, usually the wife.

Couples should generally not go through involved, expensive infertility testing until they have tried to become pregnant with NFP for at least one year. To do this, the couple times their sexual activity to correspond with when the woman ovulates (releases a fresh egg).

The treatment for infertility depends on the cause. Some treatments, such as natural family planning, are very simple. Others involve complicated, expensive medical procedures. For example, some types of surgery can cure certain problems of the uterus. Other methods manipulate eggs, sperm or developing embryos. The egg and sperm may be taken from the parents who are going to raise the child or the egg or sperm may be taken from friends or strangers.

Sometimes a human embryo is placed inside the womb of the woman who will be raising the child, or it can be placed inside the womb of another woman, “a surrogate mother,” who gives birth to the couple’s child. Sometimes processes are used which can lead to the formation of more than the desired number of embryos. In these cases “extra”

embryos may be frozen and stored for later use or killed. You can see from these many situations why some people consider some of the treatments of infertility “disturbing” and “gruesome.” Most infertility treatments are expensive and most are not paid for by insurance.

Moral Dilemmas

Infertility is too big of an issue for us to discuss in detail, but the student should be aware that some infertility treatments are seriously immoral and are, therefore, against Church teaching. Procedures that assist nature and allow the parents bodies to work normally are generally acceptable, whereas those which conflict with nature are not. Procedures which require complex medical procedures are particularly worrisome as a group, but some are fine. New methods are being developed all the time. Most of the methods rejected by the Church put a child at risk, often with little risk to the parents. Of course, the opposite should be true. The adults, who make the

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decisions, should take the risks, not babies. That is why adoption is such a marvelous option for infertile couples.

The following are some of the moral issues associated with infertility treatments and the Catholic position on them.

• Many methods require either the husband or a “sperm donor”

to provide sperm by masturbation. Sometimes the physician’s office even supplies pornography for this. Masturbation is always immoral. However, it is moral to collect sperm after sexual intercourse between a married couple.

• Some methods may cause damage to the baby. Should the baby then be killed? How much damage or potential damage should be allowed? The Catholic view, of course, is that the baby should never be killed.

• Some methods use eggs or sperm from people other than the parents, so that the child is not related by blood to one or both parents. These are always immoral.

• Some methods require storing frozen embryos or killing extra embryos produced by the procedure. These are always immoral.

• One method, called “Selective reduction of multi-fetal pregnancy,” is a delicate-sounding procedure that is used to kill extra babies in the womb when infertility treatments lead to more embryos than the couple desires (which usually means more than one or two). It is common knowledge that when there are more than two (twin) embryos in the womb there is a greater risk of medical complications. For this reason, infertility doctors who create such dilemmas are usually quick to recommend that all but one or two embryos be killed. To do this the physician inserts a needle into the womb. Using ultrasound guidance, he then pokes the needle into the heart of a randomly chosen “extra” baby and squirts potassium chloride into his or her heart, killing the child. The Church, obviously, condemns this horrific procedure.

• Some infertile couples develop an emotional problem in which they become obsessed with a desire for blood-related offspring. Unfortunately, the ready availability of infertility

treatments (which are a profitable business) promotes such thinking. Many couples become so obsessed that they will stop at nothing to have “their own” child, all the while failing to explore the adoption option. This is not to say that the large number of infertility clinics is regrettable, but only to point out one down-side of the business.

• A great moral concern is the unknown mental effects that some of these procedures may have on the children thus created. Each child is unique. There are probably some children who might not be deeply affected by the thought that they had a surrogate mother or a “sperm donor” for a parent.

But there are those who would be. The problem is that no one can know beforehand the effects on each child and, again, this places all the risk on the child. When parents are homosexuals the psychological risk is worse. Not only must the child deal with the questions about how he or she came to be, but he or she must also cope with the odd nature of homosexuality.

Both surrogate parenting and homosexual adoption are morally illicit.

Adoption: This is a marvelous alternative to abortion and to immoral treatments of infertility. Adoption solves an existing problem without creating a new one. With adoption, the wonderful difference is that the parents take the risks, not the child. The child goes from an orphanage or foster home into a more stable and natural family environment. The parents deal with whatever spiritual, emotional, or physical problems the orphan has gotten from his or her rocky start in life.

On the issue of adoption, I might add that it is not just infertile couples who can help orphans. Christ said: “Whatsoever you do to the least of my brethren that you do unto me." Orphans certainly qualify as “the least of our brethren.” Notice that Christ did not say:

"Whatsoever you do to the least of my brethren . . . only if you are infertile." Therefore, Catholic families should seriously consider adopting at least one orphan. Are there Catholic families who could not take in one more child? It is sad to consider that there are children left for homosexual couples to adopt. If each Catholic family could just take in one orphan . . . what a different world this would be.

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People often assume that families with more than two or three children are Catholic. What if people assumed that a family was Catholic because the parents had adopted one or more children . . . what a different world this would be.

A Prayer of Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta (1910-1997 AD) People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered; Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives; Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies; Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you; Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;

Build anyway.

The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow; Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough; Give the world the best you've got anyway.

You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God: It was never between you and them anyway.

Lesson 11