embryo adoption

What if saving a human life could itself raise serious moral questions? Millions of human embryos are estimated to be frozen in the United States, many abandoned by the parents who created them through IVF. For some, the solution seems obvious: Why not adopt these embryos, give them a chance to be born, and welcome them into loving families? Does Catholic teaching support embryo adoption, or prohibit it? And if frozen embryos are human beings who deserve to be gestated, is leaving them frozen indefinitely morally comparable to abortion? These questions are deeply contested within Catholic bioethics. In Part 3 of our series examining the arguments for and against embryo adoption, we turn to the case in favor of prenatal Read More ›

What if saving a human life could itself be morally wrong? More than 1.5 million human embryos are estimated to be frozen in the United States, many abandoned by the parents who created them through in vitro fertilization (IVF). For some, the solution seems obvious: Why not adopt these embryos, give them a chance to be born, and welcome them into loving families? But is embryo adoption an act of mercy, or another form of surrogacy? In Part 2 of Bioethics Babe’s Frozen Embryo Series, Fr. Tad Pacholczyk makes the Catholic moral and theological case against embryo adoption, responding directly to the philosophical and theological arguments in its defense. Fr. Tad served for more than 22 years as an ethicist, Read More ›

Can you oppose IVF and still support embryo adoption? If IVF violates the dignity of the child by separating procreation from the marital act, what happens once that child already exists, frozen and unable to continue developing? Would embryo adoption repeat the original wrong of IVF, or could it be an act of rescue? In Part 1 of a special Bioethics Babe series examining the arguments for and against embryo adoption, I sit down with philosopher and natural-law scholar Dr. Melissa Moschella, author of To Whom Do Children Belong?, to explore the philosophical case for embryo adoption. At the heart of her argument is a crucial distinction: procreation ends at fertilization. Once a new human being exists, Melissa argues, gestation Read More ›