Avant-propos - Studia Moralia

THE MORALITY OF ADOPTING FROZEN EMBRYOS 121
DV is ruling out the crossing of human gametes with those of
other mammals – “genetic bestiality” so to speak – and attempts
to gestate human embryos outside of a human womb.
Thus, we may conclude that the fifth section of Part I of DV
analyzes and morally evaluates the proposed actions of
researchers who see human embryos as mere means for attaining
knowledge, and not as human beings who deserve unconditional
respect for their lives and their physical integrity. This section
is not addressing the morality of embryo transfer (ET) with
regard to already-existing and abandoned cryopreserved
embryos. As such, it cannot be legitimately interpreted as directly
prohibiting the possibility of adopting a cryopreserved
embryo. Furthermore, the question of what can be done with
already created and cryopreserved embryos is nowhere else
addressed in DV. 13
tion of human embryos in all situations. Once one acknowledges that
embryo cryopreservation could, in some circumstances, be undertaken for
therapeutic benefit of the embryo itself, it is clear that there can be no principled
rejection of this technique.
13 The possibility of cryopreserving embryos is only mentioned in two
places in DV (i.e. I,6 and II, 1). In I, 6, DV says that cryopreservation of
embryos “even when carried out in order to preserve the life of an embryo …
constitutes an offence against the respect due to human beings” because of
(at least what was in 1987 likely to be) grave harm or death to them through
this procedure. However, this passage should not be interpreted as ruling out
the possibility of such cryopreservation in circumstances where it would
likely be of therapeutic benefit and enhance the possibility of the embryo
being gestated to term. For DV also says “In the case of experimentation that
is clearly therapeutic, namely, when it is a mattter of experimental forms of
therapy used for the benefit of the embryo itself in a final attempt to save its
life, and in the absence of other reliable forms of therapy, recourse to … procedures
not yet fully tested can be licit.” (I,4) Furthermore, I take it that the
sentence from DV I, 6 quoted above presumes that the cryopreserved
embryos of which it is speaking are not going to be gestated, and such cryopreservation
only extends their dying and subjects them to “further
offences and manipulation.”