On Rescuing Frozen Embryos

Avila Daniel “When Does Parenthood Begin?” Ethics and Medics. July 2000. Vol. 25, No. 7. pp. 3–4

Arkes Hadley “May Embryos Be Adopted?” Crisis, March 2000.

Catechism of the Catholic Church. Citta' del Vaticano: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, Pauline Books and Media, 1997.

Catechismus Catholicae Ecclesiae. Citta del Vaticano: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1994.

Cozzoli Mauro “The Human Embryo: Ethical and Normative Aspects,” in The Identity and Status of the Human Embryo: Proceedings of the Third Assembly of the Pontifical Academy for Life. Citta' del Vaticano, Libreria Editrice Vaticana: 1999. pp. 260–300.

de Rosa Francis “On the Fate of Frozen Embryos,” Unpublished paper. John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and the Family, Washington: December 13, 1999.

Faggioni Maurizio P. “The Question of Frozen Embryos,” L'Osservatore Romano, no. 34-21, August 1996.

Flannery Kevin Private correspondence by e-mail.

Geach Mary “Are there any circumstances in which it would be morally admirable for a woman to seek to have an orphan embryo implanted in her womb?” In Issues for a Catholic Bioethic. Ed. by Gormally Luke London, The Linacre Center: 1999. pp. 341–346.

Grisez Germain The Way of the Lord Jesus: Volume 3: Difficult Moral Questions, Quincy, IL, Franciscan Press: 1997.

Paul John II “I Appeal to World's Scientific Authorities: Halt the Production of Human Embryos!”

L'Osservatore Romano, no. 22-26, May 1996.

May William Catholic Bioethics and the Gift of Human Life, Huntington, Indiana: Our Sunday Visitor Publishing Division: 2000.

Paul VI . Encyclical Letter, Humanae Vitae. Boston: The Daughters of Saint Paul: July 28, 1968.

Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Donum Vitae: Instruction on Respect for Human Life in Its Origin and the Dignity of Procreation – Replies to Certain Questions of the Day. Ignatius Press, San Francisco: February 22, 1987.

Smith William “Rescue the Frozen?” Homiletic and Pastoral Review. October 1995.

Surtees Geoffrey “Adoption of a Frozen Embryo,” Homiletic & Pastoral Review, August- September 1996.

Tonti-Filippini Nicholas “Cryopreservation, Embryo Rescue and Heterologous Embryo Transfer,” Unpublished paper, undated.

Tossati Marco “Chiesa divisa sugli embrioni.” La Stampa. July 27 1996. Christus Rex Information Service website: http://www.christusrex.org/www1/news/7-96/is7-27-96.html.

Watt Helen “Are there any circumstances in which it would be morally admirable for a woman to seek to have an orphan embryo implanted in her womb?” In Issues for a Catholic Bioethic. Ed. by Gormally Luke London, The Linacre Center: 1999. pp. 347–352.

de Rosa Francis M. “On the Fate of Frozen Embryos,” (unpublished paper, John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and the Family; for JPI 618/818: Bioethics and the Family, December 13, 1999), p. 24.

Arkes Hadley “May Embryos Be Adopted?,” Crisis (March 2000), p. 12.

Arkes Hadley “May Embryos Be Adopted?,” Crisis (March 2000), p. 12.

Grisez Germain The Way of the Lord Jesus: Volume 3: Difficult Moral Questions (Franciscan Press, Quincy, ILL: 1997), p. 244.

We say this without prejudice to the possibility that Archbishop Sgreccia might have also elaborated arguments that touch on the object of the act.

Tossati Marco “Chiesa divisa sugli embrioni,” La Stampa (27 July 1996). [Taken from the Christus Rex Information Service website: http://www.christusrex.Org/ www1/news/7-96/is7-27-96.html.]

Whether or not the distinction between “ordinary” and “extraordinary” means, considered as permissible medical treatment, is predicable of ET at all is a contested point. Does ET even fall into the category of “medical treatment?” Suggesting that ET is extraordinary also implies that it is legitimate, which would be an a priori assumption in this argument.

This statement is to be noted, i.e., that: Besides becoming an undifferentiated means of access to maternity (for any woman or couple, in any condition), it would favor recourse to maternity separated from matrimony and sexuality. This point is akin to positions that argue that ET is intrinsically evil.

Cozzoli Mauro “The Human Embryo: Ethical and Normative Aspects,” in The Identity and Status of the Human Embryo: Proceedings of the Third Assembly of the Pontifical Academy for Life, eds. Correa Juan de Dios Vial , & Sgreccia Elio (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, Citta' del Vaticano, 1999), p. 295.

Grisez p. 242.

Grisez p. 242, [emphasis not in original]

Other “indecent solutions” for Geach include: war, prisons and body searches. However, the term is tendentious and morally imprecise. War is not “intrinsically evil,” for instance.

Geach Mary “Are there any circumstances in which it would be morally admirable for a woman to seek to have an orphan embryo implanted in her womb?” in Issues for a Catholic Bioethics, ed. Gormally by Luke (The Linacre Center, London: 1999), p, 341.

The Instruction Donum Vitae uses the terms homologous and heterologous in reference to artificial fertilization: “By the term homologous fertilization or procreation, the Instruction means the technique used to obtain a human conception using the gametes of the two spouses joined in marriage…By the term heterologous fertilization or procreation, the Instruction means the technique used to obtain a human conception artificially by the use of gametes coming from at least one donor other than the spouses who are joined in marriage.” Analogously, in reference to embryo transfer, homologous ET means the embryo to be transferred is the fruit of the same woman and her husband who conceived the baby in vitro. Heterologous ET means that the embryo is to be implanted in a woman who is not its genetic mother. Cf. The Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Donum Vitae: Instruction on Respect for Human Life in Its Origin and the Dignity of Procreation – Replies to Certain Questions of the Day (Ignatius Press, San Francisco: promulgated February 22, 1987), footnotes in Part II, introduction.

Catechism of the Catholic Church (Libreria Editrice Vaticana/St. Paul Books & Media, Citta' del Vaticano: 1997), no. 2376.

Catechismus Ecclesiae Catholicae (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, Citta' del Vaticano: 1997), no. 2376.

Geach p. 342.

William Smith Msgr in Homiletic and Pastoral Review, Oct. 1995, p. 72.

Donum Vitae, II, 3, footnote (*) [emphasis not in original].

Surtees Geoffrey “Adoption of a Frozen Embryo,” in Homiletic & Pastoral Review (August-September 1996), pp. 8–17.

Grisez p. 244.

Geach p. 342.

Geach p. 342.

Geach p. 342.

Geach p. 342.

This was an analogy made originally by Germain Grisez, although she does not mention him by name. Cf. Grisez.

Geach p. 342.

Geach p. 342.

Geach p. 342.

Geach , p. 343 [emphasis added].

Even were this argument false, it seems safe to say at this point that the analogy between wet-nursing and embryo transfer does not hold. In the former case a woman who is already a mother embraces and cares for a needy child with her biological/motherly gifts. In the latter case a woman who is not a mother seeks to activate and engage her biological/motherly gifts by technological means, and with no necessary connection to the marital act. Embryo rescue is more analogous to a woman who is not lactating but takes hormones to cause her mammary glands to produce milk so that she can suckle a needy child. The objection might be in that both women turn their bodies into mere instruments or reduce them to a raw material to be “exploited” to gain a desired end. Would not this be a degrading of the human body and an implicit denial of the body-soul unity?

Flannery Kevin S.J. private correspondence by e-mail with author. November 22, 2000.

Aquinas St. Thomas Summa Theologiae, IIa IIae, Q. 151.

Geach p. 345.

Geach p. 345.

Geach p. 345.

Tonti-Filippini Nicholas “Cryopreservation, Embryo Rescue and Heterologous Embryo Transfer” (unpublished paper), p. 3.

N.B. Throughout his paper, Tonti-Filippini refers to heterologous embryo transfer, however, in private correspondence he widens his condemnation to include homologous ET as well (e-mail from Nicholas Tonti-Filippini on August 14, 2000).

Donum Vitae, II, A, 1 (cited as II, A, 3 by Tonti-Filippini), [emphasis added].

Smith p. 72: “Perhaps, the CDF [in Donum Vitae] did not intend to address this precise case, but I read here a first principled insight indicating that this volunteer ‘rescue’ is not a licit option.”

Cozzoli.

Tonti-Filippini p. 4.

One might comment on the statement just cited, viz., that: It is therefore not in conformity with the moral law deliberately to expose to death human embryos obtained in vitro. Does thawing them out so that they might expire violate this injunction of the CDF?

Donum Vitae, I, 5 [emphasis added].

Surtees p. 9.

Grisez p. 242.

Paul Pope John II “I appeal to world's scientific authorities: halt the production of human embryos!” in L'Osservatore Romano (no. 22-26 May 1996), pp. 3 & 12 [emphasis added].

Paul John II “I appeal to world's scientific authorities…” p. 12.

Surtees p. 8.

Surtees p. 8.

Surtees p. 8.

Paul Pope VI Encyclical Letter, Humanae Vitae, 13 [emphasis added].

Geach p. 342.

Tonti-Filippini, p. 4[emphasis added].

Geach , p. 5.

Geach , [emphasis added].

Geach , [emphasis added].

Geach , [emphasis added]., p. 7.

Watt Helen “Are there any circumstances in which it would be morally admirable for a woman to seek to have an orphan embryo implanted in her womb?” in Issues for a Catholic Bioethics, ed. By Gormally Luke (The Linacre Center, London: 1999).

Watt Helen “Are there any circumstances in which it would be morally admirable for a woman to seek to have an orphan embryo implanted in her womb?” in Issues for a Catholic Bioethics, ed. By Gormally Luke (The Linacre Center, London: 1999)., p. 347.

Watt Helen “Are there any circumstances in which it would be morally admirable for a woman to seek to have an orphan embryo implanted in her womb?” in Issues for a Catholic Bioethics, ed. By Gormally Luke (The Linacre Center, London: 1999).

Watt Helen “Are there any circumstances in which it would be morally admirable for a woman to seek to have an orphan embryo implanted in her womb?” in Issues for a Catholic Bioethics, ed. By Gormally Luke (The Linacre Center, London: 1999)., p. 351.

Geach p. 343.

Watt pp. 347–8 [emphasis added].

Watt , p. 348 [emphasis added].

Watt , p. 348 [emphasis added].

Watt , p. 349.

Here we must note the introduction of the term implantation, whereas Geach uses impregnation. Implantation is an impregnation, but the converse is not necessarily true.

Watt p. 349.

In fact, it is curiously akin to attempts to equate “conception” with “implantation.” However, we do not make this remark to cast aspersions on Watt's commitment to the pro-life cause. Cf. Avila Daniel “When Does Parenthood Begin” A Massachusetts Court Defines the Issue,” Ethics and Medics, Vol. 25, no. 7, July 2000. pp. 3–4.

In fact, it is curiously akin to attempts to equate “conception” with “implantation.” However, we do not make this remark to cast aspersions on Watt's commitment to the pro-life cause. Cf. Avila Daniel “When Does Parenthood Begin” A Massachusetts Court Defines the Issue,” Ethics and Medics, Vol. 25, no. 7, July 2000, pp. 349–50 [emphasis added].