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DISGRACEFUL PROPAGATION

 

     ART - assisted reproductive technology: in gamete intrafallopian transfer; in zygote intrafallopian transfer; supper ovulation uterine capacitation enhancement and more of the like, are methods of producing life artificially. Methods of this kind attempt to veil the truth by providing the possibility of obtaining good, as having a child is, yet good produced by means or procedures that are unmistakably baneful - clearly having the nature of heinous crimes. According to the Doctrine of Faith, children "... cannot be desired or conceived as the product of an intervention of medical or biological techniques" since such crafty schemes by considering human persons apart from the true origin, and essence of their being are demonstrably diminishing human persons to mere articles of technological procedures. In the laboratory generation of human life, the unity between the spiritual and the biological is ruptured since the parents solely furnish materials to generate life, yet the conjugal act by which the parents are "cooperators with God for giving life to a new person" is divested of its natural and established by God order. Modern reproductive technocracy is intrinsically wrong not only because of the sub-human or artificial mode of the procreation process, which removes the emotional closeness or intimacy normally linked with generation of life, but because it also results in insufficient, or lack of respect for embryonic life (treating the human embryos as sub-human and the "spare embryos" as "industrial waste"), and in heightened permissible deviation of procreating outside of marriage - and by making extrinsic the process of procreation, minifies the "incarnate motherhood." More human embryos are produced in the test tube in the in vitro fertilization procedure than are wanted (for every single in vitro fertilization technique the requirement is to have at least four human embryos), and those embryos that are wanted are transferred into the body of the mother, whereas those that are "spare," are selectively eliminated - become subjected to a totally unfavorable, farcical doom. They are exposed to inescapable lot, "with no possibility of their being offered safe means of survival which can be licitly pursued" (Instruction). Fertilization procedure like this "entrusts the life and identity of the embryo into the power of the 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... The practice of keeping alive human embryos in vivo or in vitro for experimental or commercial purposes is totally opposed to human dignity" (Instruction).

     In reference to in vitro fertilization, William May makes a crucial differentiation between "making" and "doing" actions. In the former, the generation of life is the end "manufacture" of transitive actions, embarked on by different persons, and in consequence rendering the initial position of the child relative to that of the producers or masterminds as a product - a product of the authorities who produced it. Yet, a human child can at no time be regarded as a product of lesser value than its producers since it is a person of equal dignity to its parents and to all. In "doing" however, the actions remain in the acting subjects, for he explains that, "The action is immanent and is governed by the requirements of prudence, not of art. If the action is good, it perfects the agent(s); if bad, it degrades and dehumanizes them" (Trust the Truth). For any marital act is accord with the established divine order if it is an act that inwardly perfects those who have engaged in such an act. The child's initial relativeness to others as a product is subpersonal because the most desirable result was attained by perverted and fallible means. Generating life artificially is intrinsically immoral since if the resulting children are subnormal or are not developing normally, they become undesired and rejected, and are disposed of as though they were faulty or deficient products. Parents cannot purport that their action of having artificially generated life is ethically sound and unassailable, if they consider perverted and sinister activities involved. The only fully ethical - the divinely intended way to enter in "love-giving or life-giving actions" is by entering in relationships that are entirely open to the intercommunication of love and to transmission of new life, for as William May curtly concluded "the Eternal Word of the Father was 'begotten, not made,'" that is, since all human beings are the "created words" and the images of God, they should accordingly be "begotten, not made."

     Divine revelation (or truths revealed by the Church) provides humankind with the most powerful implement to strive resolutely to overthrow the incongruous and unreasonable principles guiding contemporary operational research and procedures; they are erroneously considered as being advantageous and sound that are nonetheless firmly grounded, as George Gilder reaffirms, on a contraception against scriptural truths, and are distinctly against the spirit. Modern technocracy is built on a false notion, on conclusive illogicality that science is totally competent, independent and self-sufficient. "The new world of technologized parenthood must indeed be brave," Donald E. DeMarco pointedly concluded, "for it ventures into terra incognita with more faith in reason than reason would find reasonable" (Trust the Truth).

     Preserving the uncontrollable wish to have a child, yet in order to have a child, sacrificing - killing many embryonic children, while countless children await for adoption, and incalculable innocents are brutally destroyed in human wombs. St. Augustine would put this rationale into the category of "perversely desiring," since again, the child is produced by ways and means unworthy of human dignity; the procedures entail unquestionably sinful and evil methods, involving criminal assault on unprotected embryonic human life. Desires became far more important than intentionality to do what is right; gratifying desires became more essential than ways and means through which desires are satisfied - any means to achieve a selfish goal. No matter how many innocents, with their inestimable and irreplaceable souls within, are sacrificed, (treated as disposable or throwaway things!) as long as a self-seeking goal is obtained. Would those who choose such practices, disclose to the elected child (or children) by what means he/she came into the world, and how many of his/her embryonic siblings were sacrificed, disposed of as inferior or simply unwanted specimens? This vile deflection from permanent Good is always evil; it is impossible to think of the decimated embryonic children without thinking of their true Creator. The divine designs are infallibly good, and were given or instituted to secure and promote the highest spiritual profits for the human race. Thus, any deflection from divine designs to changeable, capricious, baneful practices is intrinsically evil - openly opposed to the order of nature (e.g., St. Augustine).

     True knowledge is always separable from self-serving needs, while perverseness exists and intemperately flourishes while there is no regard for the "witness of conscience;" while there is no consideration for the unclouded Eye of the Omnipotent.. Perverseness and concomitant misery take roots from willful rejection of divine designs, and every insurgent choice, every obdurate wanting and each perverse affection deliver their own often irreversible infliction. This defection from divine ordering will is a clear sign of the dearth of humility - wanting something that goes against "God's higher thoughts." St. Augustine states that, "evil of mutable spirits arises from the evil choice, and that evil diminishes and corrupts the goodness of nature. And, this evil choice consists solely in falling away from God" (City of God). And, by falling away from God, a person is falling away from his/her true self, doing foolish service to the false self instead of serving the Maker, Governor and Disposer of all good things. Serious offense as this, is the demand of the false self; it is acceptable by those individuals who are either gravely uninformed, steeped in vice and arrogance, are unwilling to serve, or are lacking a measure of actual pity - evincing irreverence to what is unchangingly Sacred. Yet, "... he who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God rests upon him," (John 3:36).

     Christian moral education and instruction demand that a person chooses the right action even if he/she, or other individuals might be hurt by that chosen action. In Christian teaching, the end does not excuse or validate the means by which the end is attained, and an action can be entirely good when all its integrant parts or elements involved are good, that is, the object, end and circumstances; and the action is regarded as being wrong or evil if any one of these elements is wrong or evil. Hence, no morally wrong action may be done for any reason, even for seemingly good reason or even on the assumption of having a good intention. There exist the following fundamental principles that govern right or moral conduct: "God desires us always to have, above all, an upright intention, but that is not enough. He also requires that the action be a good action [...]. It is not permissible to do evil in order to achieve a good end" (Pius XII, Address, 18 April 1952). Actions are right and moral while carried out in accordance with the demands of the divine ordinances designed to protect the person's dignity and ensure his/her highest spiritual progression. To put it simply, life becomes genuine when it is thoroughly taken by God. Having this in mind, St. Augustine emphatically pointed out that without true faith a person should not attempt anything in this earthly existence. Still, God poses steadily to each and all of us the following question: "Is not My Love enough for you?"

Christian Works by Dorothy Kardas, Psy.D. Th.D. 

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