Director, Queensland Bioethics Centre
Queensland Bioethics Centre
http://bne.catholic.net.au/qbc
Website:http://bne.catholic.net.au/qb
If we look at IVF the situation is very different. The child is not conceived in and through the very act which celebrates the two-in-oneness of the spouses. The child is conceived as a result of a whole series of acts and decisions, most of which are not the acts or decisions of the parents, but of others. The act of intercourse, if it takes place, is only accidental to the procedure. The spouses produce the gametes which are used by others in order to produce the end product. These acts are actions typical of a making, a producing. In IVF a person comes into being as an object of manipulation by the technicians. This is a relationship of radical dominance, which does not embody the respect for the dignity of the individual.
Date posted: 2008-01-16