Christians base their views on controversial moral issues using different sources of ethical authority. These sources include the Bible, Papal encyclicals, the Catholic catechism and church councils.
The main underlying ethical concepts from the Bible are derived from the unity and holiness of God. The 10 commandments, which appears in the Old Testament, describes the expectations of Gods own people. These expectations have become an important statement of ethical behaviour, focusing on the worship of God and respect for other people. As a result of deliberately taking an innocent life through IVF, many people don’t realize they are in fact breaking the 6th commandment “thou shall not kill.” As the Christian church believes that life is sacred from conception, the destruction of embryos constitutes in the loss of human lives.
Also, the New Testament states that al moral rules follow from the duty to love God, yourself and others equally. The New Testament outlines the way of life expected of followers of Jesus in much more simpler terms.
As well as the Bible, Christians use the Papal encyclicals for guidance. In the encyclical letter Humanae Vitae, issued by Pope Paul 6th in 1968, it was stated that union and procreation are 2 inseparable acts. It states “By safeguarding both these essential aspects, the unitive and the procreative, the conjugal act preserves in its fullness the sense of true mutual love and its ordination towards man's most high calling to parenthood.” This statement contradicts the very essence of the IVF procedure, regarding it as unethical and immoral.
As well as this, many Christians derive their ethical views from the Catholic catechism which damns all IVF treatment as venturing into the realm of immorality. It condemns IVF on the ground that it infringes on the child’s right to be born to a father and mother known to him and bound to each other by marriage. The catechism also opposes IVF because it entrusts the life and identity of the embryo into the power of doctors and scientists and establishes the domination of technology over the origin and destiny of the human person.
These various sources of ethical authority are derived from the ethical writings and teachings of Jesus Christ, the founder of Christianity.
In a media release from the Christian Democratic Party issued on the 3rd of August 2000, it supported a ban on IVF for single women. The party believes in the fundamental right of children to grow up in a family with its natural mother and father. This view supports my findings on the immorality of IVF.
In conclusion, it can be seen form the information gathered, the stance of both Catholics and Anglicans against IVF. These Christian variants believe the IVF procedure is both morally and ethically illicit, based on heir sources of ethical authority.
By Saskia de Leede-Smith
Religion Report
Fundamental Christian values reflect the position taken by the church on ethical and moral issues. In the above statement, fundamental Christian values are defined as people’s essential or principal feelings and attitudes towards things that are important to them. Ethical and moral issues are defined as debates which relate to principles of right and wrong. I believe this statement is an accurate way of describing the ethical and moral teachings of Christianity.
Christian values are viewed as the values which are based on the life and teachings of Jesus as expressed in the Bible. One of the major Christian values is the sanctity of life. The message of the great teachers of all the worlds’ religions is that the universe and everything in it is divine. The Christian religion especially, is taught the reverence (great respect and admiration) of life. Another major Christian value is love, expressed in the commandment “love one another as I have loved you”. Apart from love, this commandment also relates to the respect and acceptance of every individual. Jesus taught that everyone is special and has a purpose on earth. This view is one that is held highly for the Christian religion.
One of the main ethical issues which cause a great deal of conflict in society is In Vitro Fertilization (IVF). IVF is an assisted reproductive technology which is used in cases of infertility. In this procedure one or more eggs are fertilized outside a female’s body. To do this, eggs are collected from the ovaries and placed in a dish with a large number of sperm for approximately 18 hours. The eggs are then placed in a special growth medium which allows fertilization to occur. Afterwards, the embryo is either transferred back into the woman’s uterus, or frozen and stored for later use (usually scientifically).
Christians are against the use of IVF on the grounds that it is immoral to produce human embryos destined to be exploited as disposable biological material. However the Roman Catholic church has shown the strongest opposition to IVF, issuing a doctrinal statement in 1987 opposing IVF on 3 grounds; the destruction of human embryos not used for implantation, the possibility of IVF by a sperm donor other than the husband (therefore removing reproduction from the marital context), and finally the severing of an essential connection between the nuptial act and procreation. The Christian response to IVF comes from many different sources of ethical authority. However the main underlying ethical concepts come from the Bible. As a result of deliberately taking an innocent human life, many people don’t realize they are I fact breaking the 6th commandment “thou shall not kill”. As the Christian church believes that life is sacred from conception, the destruction of embryos constitutes in the loss of human lives.
Other sources of ethical authority for Catholics are papal encyclicals and the catholic catechism. In the encyclical letter Humanae Vitae, issued by Pope Paul VI in 1968 (footnotes no1.) he states that union and procreation are 2 inseparable acts. In saying this, IVF is deemed as unethical and immoral, as in the IVF procedure the conjugal act is separated from the procreative.
The Catholic catechism also describes IVF treatment as “venturing into the realm of immorality”. The catechism opposes IVF on the grounds that it entrusts the life and the identity of the embryo into the power of scientists and establishes the domination of technology over the origin and destiny of the human person.
The stance taken by the Christian church relating to IVF is determined by its fundamental Christian values. As Christian values are established through the life and teachings of Jesus and the sources of ethical authority also base their statements on the life and teachings of Jesus, the 2 are interrelated. The major Christian value is the sanctity of human life, which is expressed most thoroughly in the Bible, papal encyclicals and the catholic catechism. Without the fundamental Christian values, the Christian church would not be able to determine a position on controversial ethical and moral issues such as IVF.
Abortion is also another extremely controversial ethical issue relating to the Christian church. Abortion is a medical procedure that terminates pregnancy by removing the implanted fetus before it can survive outside the uterus. Vacuum aspiration is the most common abortion procedure. A thin flexible tube is inserted into the vagina, through the cervix and into the womb. It is attached to a suction machine at the other end which draws out the contents of the uterus, taking the fetus with it.
Christians believe abortion is unethical on the grounds that the fetus is a living person from the moment of conception. Therefore, abortion is seen as the murder of an innocent defenseless human. The embryonic child has an equal right to life with its mother, and therefore neither the mother nor medical practitioner lawfully has the right to take that life away. In the Catholic Church, abortion was condemned in 1895 in the statement “it cannot be safely taught in Catholic schools that it is lawful to perform…any surgical operation which is directly destructive of the life of the fetus or the mother.”
The reason for the Christians stance on abortion comes from its sources of ethical authority. As was the case with IVF, the church opposes abortion primarily from the life and teachings of Jesus through the Bible. The Bible states that every human life is special, unique and has a specific purpose. The taking of an innocent life through abortion directly breaks the 6th commandment “thou shall not kill”.
Also, the opposition of abortion is seen in the Catholic papal encyclical Humanae Vitae (footnotes no.2) which state that abortion is an illicit way of regulating birth. It also claims that when the generative process has already begun, it is an unacceptable form of evil to terminate the pregnancy by means of abortion.
It is evident by the stance of the Christian church against abortion, that their views have been derived from fundamental Christian values. These Christian values-such as the sanctity of life and love, form the basis of the churches views, as the churches stance on abortion would not be formed if it weren’t for the basic teachings of Jesus.
In conclusion, it can be seen from the following essay that fundamental Christian values do, in fact, reflect the position taken by the church on ethical and moral issues such as IVF and abortion.
By Saskia de Leede-Smith
Footnotes
HUMANAE VITAE
Encyclical Letter of His Holiness Pope Paul VI on Human Life Issued July 25, 1968
Two Inseparable Aspects: Union and Procreation
1. That teaching, often set forth by the magisterium, is founded upon the inseparable connection, willed by God and unable to be broken by man on his own initiative, between the two meanings of the conjugal act: the unitive meaning and the procreative meaning. Indeed, by its intimate structure, the conjugal act, while most closely uniting husband and wife, capacitates them for the generation of new lives, according to laws inscribed in the very being of man and of woman. By safeguarding both these essential aspects, the unitive and the procreative, the conjugal act preserves in its fullness the sense of true mutual love and its ordination towards man's most high calling to parenthood. We believe that the men of our day are particularly capable of seeing the deeply reasonable and human character of this fundamental principle.
Illicit Ways of Regulating Birth
2. In conformity with these landmarks in the human and Christian vision of marriage, we must once again declare that the direct interruption of the generative process already begun, and, above all, directly willed and procured abortion, even if for therapeutic reasons, are to be absolutely excluded as licit means of regulating birth.
Equally to be excluded, as the teaching authority of the Church has frequently declared, is direct sterilization, whether perpetual or temporary, whether of the man or of the woman. Similarly excluded is every action which, either in anticipation of the conjugal act, or in its accomplishment, or in the development of its natural consequences, proposes, whether as an end or as a means, to render procreation impossible.
To justify conjugal acts made intentionally in fecund, one cannot invoke as valid reasons the lesser evil, or the fact that such acts would constitute a whole together with the fecund acts already performed or to follow later and hence would share in one and the same moral goodness. In truth, if it is sometimes licit to tolerate a lesser evil in order to avoid a greater evil or to promote a greater good it is not licit, even for the gravest reasons, to do evil so that good may follow there from; that is, to make into the object of a positive act of the will something which is intrinsically disorder, and hence unworthy of the human person, even when the intention is to safeguard or promote individual, family or social well-being. Consequently it is an error to think that a conjugal act which is deliberately made in fecund and so is intrinsically dishonest could be made honest and right by the ensemble of a fecund conjugal life.
Bibliography
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Barbieri, Robert (2001) Six steps to increased fertility, Fireside, New York
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Christian Medical Fellowship, 2002, Artificial Reproduction,
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Christian Organization, 2004, Embryo Experiments,
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The Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, 2002, Section 5. Religious Views on the Use of ES Cells for Therapeutic Research,
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The Vatican Library, 2005, Synod of Bishops,
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Tomlins, Jacqueline (2003), The Infertility Handbook, Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest
