A Handbook on the Moral Arguments in the Embryo Adoption Debate: What Does the Catholic Church Teach?

The possibility of embryo adoption has existed for over two decades and raises some questions that people really do not know how to answer. Over half a century ago, when the first in vitro fertilization child was born, Albino Luciani, who within days would become Pope John Paul I, immediately issued a statement welcoming the child into the world that recognized the full humanity of the child without endorsing the in vitro procedure. Today there are over one million frozen embryos in cryostorage and the question in Dignitas personae 19 about “what to do with them” is still unresolved. The legal status of the embryo should be a person – and some states have passed laws pertaining to embryo adoption – but there is still a great deal of confusion going on. This book was written in the hope of clarifying some of the ethical issues in the search for a moral solution.