Avant-propos - Studia Moralia

126 JOHN BERKMAN
In line with the definition of surrogacy offered in DV, the
essence of surrogacy lies in the woman’s willingness to gestate a
child on behalf of others. 22 Thus, in the situation in which a
woman arranges to have an embryo implanted in her womb, and
does so without a prior arrangement to give up the child to a specific
couple upon delivery, she is not acting as a surrogate mother,
strictly speaking. Whatever other criticisms may or may not
be directed at what is being done, the woman is not, according to
the definition offered by Donum vitae, a surrogate mother. 23
When evaluated in a broader context, surrogacy can also be
seen to contribute to the denigration of the moral significance of
gestation, including that of the good and natural bond that
develops between mother and child in the gestational period.
While the contemporary discussion of IVF-ET, surrogacy, and
embryo adoption seems to see little or no moral significance in
the unique act of human gestation, it is what – in a profound
sense – makes a woman a mother. In the next section on embryo
adoption and the virtue of chastity, more will be said about the
moral significance of gestation.
(ii) Is Embryo Adoption Contrary to the Virtue of Chastity?
If embryo adoption is not a case of surrogacy strictly speaking,
some see it as analogous to surrogacy in that it involves a
woman in actions that are incompatible with the nature of the
marital commitment among Catholics. For example, Mary
Geach has described embryo adoption as a “technological
impregnation,” and concluded that it is wrong because all forms
22 A religious form of surrogacy is illustrated in Margaret Atwood’s The
Handmaid’s Tale.
23 It may be argued that DV has an inadequate definition of surrogacy.
It is certainly debatable as to whether a woman’s decision to “rescue” and
“foster” a child to birth, with a general intention to give the child up for
adoption, is a form of surrogacy. If this appeared to be done with a goal of
financial gain, this would seem to reveal something about the nature of the
woman’s intentions that would make the action closer to, if not in fact, a
form of surrogacy.