Avant-propos - Studia Moralia

THE MORALITY OF ADOPTING FROZEN EMBRYOS 117
light of DV, DV’s embryological views will be presumed without
further argumentation.
1. Does Donum Vitae directly prohibit embryo adoption?
In the last seven years, there have been a number of analyses
regarding whether married couples (and in some cases
unmarried women) can licitly “adopt” a frozen embryo. Prior to
the widespread publicity generated by the destruction of
embryos in the U.K. in 1996, one Catholic theologian had
already examined the morality of embryo adoption in relation to
his understanding of DV. In a question-and-answer section of
his monthly column of the October 1995 issue of the Homiletic
and Pastoral Review, William Smith responded to a question
from a Catholic couple who wished to consider the possibility of
adopting a frozen embryo who had been abandoned. 5 Smith
argued, albeit tentatively, that it was not licit for a couple to “rescue”
a frozen embryo, and his response was drawn for the most
part from his interpretation of the teaching of DV. 6 More specifically,
Smith’s response hinged on his interpretation of what I
will refer to as the “cannot be licitly pursued” sentence from DV.
That sentence from DV reads as follows:
In consequence of the fact that they have been produced in
vitro, those embryos which are not transferred into the body of the
mother and are called “spare” are exposed to an absurd fate [sorti
absurdae obnoxii permanent], with no possibility of their being
offered safe means of survival which can be licitly pursued.” 7
5 In this case, it is clear that the embryo is not of the couple’s own making
and that the couple oppose in vitro fertilization (IVF). It is also fairly
clear that the couple were not in any other way party to the creation and
abandonment of the embryo, but enter the situation as people trying to
respond in a morally appropriate way to what they see to be an ongoing
morally problematic situation.
6 See also Smith’s comments in Caulfield (1998), pp. 1, 15.
7 DV, I, 5. “Eo quod in vitro producti sunt, hi embryones, qui in matris
corpus non translati ‘supranumerarii’ vocantur, sorti absurdae obnoxii per-