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Contrary to what a local philosopher wrote in a Maltese weekly (It-Torca) with regard to the ethicality of technological intervention in the procreative act, Pope John Paul II in the document titled ‘The Dignity of Human Procreation and Reproductive Technologies: Anthropological and Ethical Aspects’ (p21 Feb 2004, p7) stated:
“The act in which the spouses become parents through the reciprocal and total gift of themselves makes them co-operators with the Creator in bringing into the world a new human being called to eternal life. An act so rich that it transcends even the life of the parents cannot be replaced by a mere technological intervention, depleted of the human value and at the very mercy of determinism and instrumental procedures.”
And Palma Sgreccia writing in “L’Osservatore Romano” (15.06.2005) in summary gives “The Basic Principles of Catholic Teaching on Procreation in ‘Donum Vitae’ the ‘Instruction on respect for human life in its origin and on the dignity of procreation’ (published by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the faith, 22.02.1987), thus:
- Respect for human life in its origin from the moment of conception is only right
- Human procreation must take place within the marriage of a man and a woman and must be the fruit of the conjugal act
- Biomedical intervention shows respect for the person’s dignity when it aims to assist (and not substitute) the conjugal act”.
Joseph Bonett Balzan
St Julians
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