CCC 2377
© Libreria Editrice Vaticana Source: vatican.va
Techniques involving only the married couple (homologous artificial insemination and fertilization) are perhaps less reprehensible, yet remain morally unacceptable. They dissociate the sexual act from the procreative act. the act which brings the child into existence is no longer an act by which two persons give themselves to one another, but one that "entrusts the life and identity of the embryo into the power of doctors and biologists and establishes the domination of technology over the origin and destiny of the human person. Such a relationship of domination is in itself contrary to the dignity and equality that must be common to parents and children." CDF — Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Donum vitae II, 5. "Under the moral aspect procreation is deprived of its proper perfection when it is not willed as the fruit of the conjugal act, that is to say, of the specific act of the spouses' union .... Only respect for the link between the meanings of the conjugal act and respect for the unity of the human being make possible procreation in conformity with the dignity of the person." CDF — Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Donum vitae II, 4.
Read the full chapter 2. You Shall Love Your Neighbor as Yourself ¶2196–2557
Cited in 3
- ¶2377 Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church(235)Questions(IVF and embryos
Infertility)