Studies of Religion 12 - Bioethics - Surrogacy: Articles and Books

This article will attempt to provide a Christian ethical perspective on one option of assisted reproductive techniques which is becoming increasingly popular, surrogacy.
The lack of a moral or ethical compass is one of the results of our postmodern culture. Many people would admit to having no external criteria for judging their beliefs. Most people have default values – a series of values that minimize the friction between personal spiritual inclination, personal emotional preferences, cultural expectations and relational pressures. Default values are flexible values because the person’s needs and preferences can change with each shift in the context of life.

What insights into Church teaching can be drawn from the biblical account of Abraham and Sarah’s experience with surrogate pregnancy? When Sarah’s maid, Hagar, conceives Abraham’s son Ishmael, negative consequences ensue. Hagar’s contempt for Sarah incites Sarah’s jealousy. Sarah’s abuse of Hagar leads Hagar to run away. Abraham is forced to banish Hagar and his son Ismael. These unhappy repercussions arise from the fact that surrogacy violates God’s plan for marriage and for the dignity of the human person. Although reproductive technologies continue to advance, human nature remains the same. The lessons learned from Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Hagar, and Ishmael’s experience with surrogacy can be profitably applied to Church teaching on marriage and reproductive technologies.
National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly 11.3 (Autumn 2011): 443-451.

The trend among Western liberal democracies is for increasing liberalization of
assisted reproduction, gamete donation, and gestational surrogacy. The article argues that a logic of liberalization is widespread and provides a main impetus for liberalization. We analyze the logic of liberalization and find that it consists of four widely held premises. Thereafter, five main lines of arguments available to the Christian who is critical of such liberalization are presented and assessed. The arguments pertain to (1) the value of embryos; (2) the commodification of the child and gestation; (3) children’s welfare; (4) children’s rights; and (5) unacceptable
consequences of the logic of liberalization. The article ends with an evaluation of how these arguments are likely to fare in public debate.

Abstract. This article briefly examines the topic of surrogacy in light of two
opposing perspectives, mainstream feminism and Catholicism, which despite
very different moral dimensions, arrive at the same conclusion. The author
discusses the similarities between these two moral perspectives that are normally considered to be opposed to each other. National Catholic Bioethics
Quarterly 17.4 (Winter 2017): 623–630.