Avant-propos - Studia Moralia

StMor 40 (2002) 115-141
JOHN BERKMAN
THE MORALITY OF ADOPTING FROZEN EMBRYOS
IN LIGHT OF DONUM VITAE
In at least some instances, the choice by Catholic women to
adopt cryopreserved human embryos who have been abandoned
by their biological parents is compatible with current Catholic
teaching on assisted reproduction, on surrogate motherhood,
and on the family. While a variety of potential circumstances
may rule out this practice in some situations, the view that it is
morally acceptable in some circumstances and morally praiseworthy
in others is consonant with current Catholic teaching on
the appropriate reverence and respect for human life from conception
until natural death.
The most extensive and authoritative evaluation of the status
of and protection to be accorded to early embryos from the
teaching office of the Catholic church is to be found in the
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith’s (CDF) Instruction
on Respect for Human Life in its origin and on the Dignity of
Procreation, more widely referred to as Donum vitae (DV). 1 Near
the beginning of DV, the CDF notes that it makes free use of a
variety of biological terms (e.g. “zygote”, “pre-embryo”,
“embryo” and “foetus”) to refer to the embryo in its various
stages of development. However, it sees no relevant moral distinction
between these stages, as all “designate the result
(whether visible or not) of human generation, from the first
1 Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Instruction on Respect for
Human Life in its origin and on the Dignity of Procreation, February 22, 1987:
Acta Apostolicae Sedis 80 (1988), 70-102. Henceforth cited as DV with section
numbers. English translations of DV are taken from Origins, vol. 16, no. 40
(March 19, 1987), 697-711, unless otherwise noted.