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(The following is excerpted from an article by Grace MacKinnon in This
Rock magazine. Her website is: www.deargrace.com)
If it is wrong to use human embryos for experimental research, then what
is to be done with these often-unwanted frozen children? Can their
lives be saved when we know that the only way to do so is by implanting
them in a woman's womb, an act condemned as immoral by the Catholic
Church?
In 1987, the Church issued Donum Vitae, a document giving the Church's
controlling statement on the dignity and respect due to the human embryo.
It said, in effect, that the human embryo must be respected and treated as
a person recognized to have, above all, the right to life. In light
of this teaching, can it be morally permissible to freeze or keep frozen a
human being, even with the purpose of preserving its life? Donum Vitae
says NO -- that to do so exposes them to grave risks of death or harm and
deprives them of normal maternal shelter and gestation. However,
those embryos that are not transferred into the womb of a mother and are
called "spare" are exposed to an absurd fate, with no
possibility of their being offered safe means of survival which can be
licitly pursued.
In other words, none of the options available for saving the life of these
embryos can be said to be morally permissible and in conformity with the
plan of God for human procreation. Because of this quandary, moral
theologians have been debating the issue of "rescuing" these
frozen embryos. Though they give different arguments, many
theologians agree that it is morally licit for a woman to volunteer to
have an embryo transferred into her womb in order to protect its life.
Others say that such an act is not licit.
In the end, it will be the Church's magisterium, as the only authentic
interpreter of the word of God in matters of faith and morals, that will
decide what is to be done regarding this grave moral issue. We must
recognize the right of God alone to give life and to take it. It has
been one of humanity's great tragedies that many innocent ones have to die
before we are able to see that truth.
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