ART and Implications on Future Generations from the Christian/Catholic Perspective

Abstract

The contribution discusses Assisted Reproductive Technologies in the light of Christian religious and ethical principles. According to the Christian/Catholic perspective, the Assisted Reproductive Technologies should respect three fundamental goods: (1) the right to life and physical integrity of every human being from conception; (2) the unity of marriage, which involves mutual respect for the right of spouses (a man and a woman) to become parents only through each other; (3) the specifically human values of sexuality. In this perspective, human generation has a special status that cannot be compared with that of any other living being, because it is the generation of a person; the intrinsic dignity of the embryo should be always respected. The Christian/Catholic perspective underlines the need to defend “a” family model in front of the new reproductive technologies, as a “natural community”: as bi-parenthood, sexually different, relatively young. The contribution then tackles the issues of prenatal testing, preimplantation genetic diagnosis, and that of surrogate motherhood, underlining specific questions at stake in the light of Christian principles and ethical values at stake.