Catholicism and Surrogacy

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By Tomilya Simmons Surrogacy in some form or fashion has been a part of our history ever since biblical times. The story of Abraham and Sarah’s inability to conceive their own child and deciding to have their slave, Hagar, act as a surrogate is a story almost everyone knows. However, the most modern form of surrogacy took off in the 1970s and the Catholic Church’s has condemned it ever since. According to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, surrogacy separates the act of conception from the sexual act, introduces a third party onto the act of procreation, and lessens the status of the surrogate mother to that of a prostitute. In the Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 2376 states that “Techniques that entail the dissociation of husband and wife, by the intrusion of a person other than the couple (donation of sperm or ovum, surrogate uterus), are gravely immoral”. This immoral act stems from the belief that infidelity is being committed when a third party is introduced, as procreation is a sanctioned act between husband and wife and should never be violated. Stephen A. Cooper, Ph.D, a professor of religious studies at Franklin & Marshall College, says that the fundamental values associated with assisted reproductive technology are the life of the potential child and the nature of the creation of human life in marriage. Surrogacy contradicts the unity of marriage and the dignity of the child brought into existence (The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith). The Donum Vitae states that surrogate motherhood offends “maternal love, conjugal fidelity, and responsible motherhood,” as well as “the dignity and the right of the child to be conceived, carried in the womb, brought into the world and brought up by his own parents”. Because of this, the definition of motherhood and family is altered due to surrogacy. There are numerous claims to
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