Peter Colosi

Theology of the Body and Dignitas Personae: Reections on Christian Anthropology as the Foundation of the Culture of Life: Transforming the Culture of Death from the Roots up
Introduction Explanation of why certain things are wrong in the bioethics eld. Dignitas personae and Donum vitae deal with biology in quite detailed ways with techniques that scientists use. The Church always says that she is in favour of science and technology. But two ways in which it can be used. One way makes it more human; one makes it less human though. With respect to conjugal relations the Church makes a distinction between biotechnological ways between in which science can help and when it distorts techniques e.g. Naprotechnology assisting conjugal relations. IVF: involves obtaining sperm from a man usually via masturbation and eggs through hyper-ovulating woman. A technician puts them together in a laboratory. At blastocyst stage it is implanted in woman. Church sees this procedure as immoral. Many have asked whether IVF might be morally good in some cases and not in others. What about infertile couple who want to have a baby but cannot? Maybe in that case it is morally acceptable. That too is immoral. Certainly, homologous IVF and ET fertilization is not marked by all that ethical negativity found in extra-conjugal procreation; the family and marriage continue to constitute the setting for the birth and upbringing of the children. Nevertheless, in conformity with the traditional doctrine relating to the goods of marriage and the dignity of the person, the Church remain opposed from the moral point of view to homologous 'in vitro' fertilization. Such fertilization is in itself illicit and in opposition to the dignity of procreation and of the conjugal union, even when everything is done to avoid the death of the human embryo. Donum vitae, II, B, 5 The fertility industry is an industry, hand in glove with the pill! Women take the Pill for years, then they go to IVF. In every case of IVF embryos are killed. In Italy you cant create more embryos than will be implanted. Not in USA or UK though. 400,000 frozen embryos in USA. IVF is wrong because it always involves aborting children. This disturbs the mind of the parents because the desire for a child causes them to kill another child. Dv recognises this. The approach to other people in making them shifts from idea of gift to idea of product. 1

Peter Colosi

The Church uses language such as every human being has the right to be conceived because of a specic conjugal act because of the love between his parents. Behind every no in the difcult task of discerning between good and evil, there shines a great yes to the recognition of the dignity and inalienable value of every single and unique human being called into existence. Dignitas personae, 36 At the end of Dv, it says: The precise indications which are offered in the present Instruction therefore are not meant to halt the effort of reection but rather to give it a renewed impulse in unrenounceable delity to the teaching of the Church. Donum vitae, Conclusion If there are so many lists given by Church of things you cant do, why this quote? [T]he Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith addresses an invitation with condence and encouragement to theologians, and above all to moralists, that they study more deeply and make eves more accessible to the faithful the contents of the teaching of the Church's Magisterium in the light of a valid anthropology in the matter of sexuality and marriage and in the context of the necessary interdisciplinary approach. Thus they will make it possible to understand ever more clearly the reasons for and the validity of this teaching. Donum vitae, Conclusion The very rst line talks about Synod of Bishops about to take place in 1980. Fruit of that was Fc. TOB 1.5 shows the deep roots from which this topic springs: During the following Wednesday reections at the general audiences, we will try, as Christ's interlocutors today, to dwell at greater length on St. Matthews words (19:3ff.). To respond to the indication, inserted in them by Christ, we will try to penetrate toward that beginning, to which he referred in such a signicant way. Thus we will follow from a distance the great work which participants in the forthcoming Synod of Bishops are undertaking on this subject just now. Together with them, numerous groups of pastors and laymen are taking part in it, feeling especially responsible with regard to the role which Christ assigned to 2

Peter Colosi

marriage and the Christian family, the role that he has always given, and still gives in our age, in the modern world. The cycle of reections we are beginning today, with the intention of continuing it during the following Wednesday meetings, also has the purpose, among other things, of accompanying from afar, so to speak, the work of preparation for the Synod. However, it will not touch its subject directly, but will turn our attention to the deep roots from which this subject springs. Wednesday Audience, 5th September 1979 Inner core of the family is love between the spouses. Those are the roots behind TOB so we can follow the synod. Deepening the topic The gift of life which God the Creator and Father has entrusted to man calls him to appreciate the inestimable value of what he has been given and to take responsibility for it Donum vitae, 1 The dignity of a person must be recognized in every human being from conception to natural death. Dignitas Personae, 1 Both therefore say that every human being is to be respected from conception to natural death etc. Typically, we can keep that meaning intact. To respect an embryo from the moment of conception also in addition to respecting its life also concerns the way in which the embryo is created. Distinction We have to distinguish between origin and relationships of a person. The Origin of Someone - how a person came into existence: what exactly the act and the decisions were that caused a person to be. The Relationship of Someone: the relationships that person has after they come into being with those / the people who brought them into being. The relationship is formed by the origin. (Both of these are Colosis own denitions.)

Peter Colosi

The acts and decisions that are used for bringing someone into being have an effect on the relationship with the people who made those acts and decisions. Although every person is meant to come into existence because of a specic way of loving embrace, there are many ways in which people come into being. Rape, fornication, acts within marriage, cloning, IVF etc. There are people who come into being in these other ways: yet they still have the full dignity of the human person from the moment of conception. God loves them into being. Every child that comes into the world must be accepted as a living gift of the divine goodness. Man has unassailable value he possesses an eternal vocation. This value belongs to all without distinction. The women in the genealogy of Jesus not exactly married people. Ruth, Rahab, Tamar, Bathsheba. Incest, rape, harlotry, provocativeness. They are in Jesuss genealogy! God can redeem everything! This does not mean that the actions in which these people were involced are not immoral. We should repent of immoral actions and stop doing them. Without diminishing the worth of any one of them that comes into being. The reason for that wrongness is not because the person created has less worth. The origin of a person has an unavoidable inuence on a persons relationships subsequently. Theres an adjustment made depending on the creators choices in their creation. The way someone relates. That is intuitively sensible. What about people married to each other in IVF? Sperm donation Before we get there, focus on sperm donation. My Daddys name is donor. Read this. Quote 11. From donor child. They have an existential angst because of the thought that a small amount of money exchanged hands and an impersonal act of masturbation happened. Donor children want to nd their parents.

Peter Colosi

Rights of a child are shown to be violated. eg Mother who decides for the child that he would not have a father, and this without asking him. IVF and two parents married In the body and through the body one touches the person himself in his concrete reality. Donum vitae, Introduction We are our bodies. So you dont slap someone you dont like and say I respect you as a person! Lets think about bodily touching: One is the loving bodily touching of husband and wife in conjugal relations. Then the sperm and the egg meet in the body of the mother. In IVF, the forms of bodily touching are masturbation, egg retrieval, anonymous technician putting them together and then putting them in womans body. Some intuitive sense that conceptus is being touched in these ways or these ways. One more point to make intuitive sense of why IVF is wrong even when parents are providers of gametes: Quote 14: Man becomes a product... Benedict is saying that a total alteration of our understanding from seeing others as a gift versus a product whom you made. Conclusion Mother Teresa: family is basic building-block of society. Quote 19. World peace depends on whether there is love in families. However, the family remains vulnerable and can easily fall prey to dangers which weaken it or actually destroy its unity and stability. As a result of these dangers families cease to be witnesses of the civilization of love and can even become a negation of it, a kind of counter-sign. A broken family can, for its part, consolidate a specic form of anticivilization, destroying love in its various expressions, with inevitable consequences for the whole of life in society. John Paul II, Letter to Families, 13 Mother Teresa shows what happens. Questions on: Difference between object and intention NFP question about whether its contraception 5

Peter Colosi

The object is not contraception. Its a different moral issue (of the intention) in the case of NFP couples with a contraceptive mentality. Two elements of a moral act to consider. The object and the intention. eg If I give alms its good in itself. But if I give alms with the view to looking good thats bad. There are other acts which by their object they are wrong. The intention does not make it good. eg Abortion. In contraception there is a bad object chosen which is not there in NFP. In NFP you are open. It is objectively good. Question about gay couples wanting kids Always bring the question whether the best thing for children to have a mother and a father that love each other. They cant deny it. Genealogy of Jesus issue. What happens in a broken relationship to x it? Reconciliation. Something like an apology by the creators for the violation of a donor childs rights might bring about healing. Not an apology for their being but for the acts that brought them into being.