A Catholic ethical approach to human reproductive technology

Abstract

This article presents the Catholic Christian tradition and teaching on the moral respect due to human life from conception, supported by natural law moral philosophical reasoning. This approach contrasts with the ethical views of secular philosophers on human embryo research for therapeutic purposes. The challenges for Catholic healthcare institutions is to find ethical ways of using suitable pluripotent stem cells for therapies without creating or destroying human embryos. Catholic teaching on infertility treatment and reproductive technology are presented with emphasis given to the ethical need for children to be conceived and born of the marriage union compared with alterative ethical approaches for the use of infertility treatment and reproductive technology.