The Ethics of Embryo Adoption and the Catholic Tradition: Moral Arguments, Economic Reality and Social Analysis

325 Pages·2007·2.8 MB·English

by  Sarah-Vaughan Brakman Ph.D

The Ethics of Embryo Adoption
and the Catholic Tradition
Philosophy and Medicine
VOLUME 95
Founding Co-Editor
Stuart F. Spicker
Senior Editor
H. Tristram Engelhardt, Jr., Department of Philosophy, Rice University,
and Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas
Associate Editor
Lisa M. Rasmussen, Department of Philosophy, University of North Carolina
at Charlotte, Charlotte, North Carolina
CATHOLIC STUDIES IN BIOETHICS
Series Founding Co-Editors
John Collins Harvey, Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., U.S.A.
Francesc Abel, Institut Borja de Bioetica, Center Borja, Barcelona, Spain
Senior Editor
Christopher Tollefsen, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, U.S.A.
Editorial Advisory Board
Joseph Boyle, St. Michael’s College, Toronto, Canada
Thomas Cavanaugh, University of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, U.S.A.
Mark Cherry, St. Edward’s University, Austin, TX, U.S.A.
Ana Smith Iltis, St. Louis University, St. Louis, MO, U.S.A.
Sarah-Vaughan Brakman • Darlene Fozard Weaver
Editors
The Ethics of Embryo
Adoption and the Catholic
Tradition
Moral Arguments, Economic Reality
and Social Analysis
Sarah-Vaughan Brakman Darlene Fozard Weaver
Villanova University Villanova University
Villanova, PA Villanova, PA
USA USA
ISBN 978-1-4020-6210-0 e-ISBN 978-1-4020-6211-7
Library of Congress Control Number: 2007943466
© 2007 Springer Science + Business Media B.V.
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Printed on acid-free paper
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To our husbands, Jim and Sean, and children,
Gracie and Julia, Jack and Nate, with love
and gratitude
Contents
Contributors ................................................................................................... ix
Part I The Morality of Embryo Adoption
Introduction: The Ethics of Embryo Adoption
and the Catholic Tradition ............................................................................ 3
Sarah-Vaughan Brakman and Darlene Fozard Weaver
Arguments against
Heterologous Embryo Transfer: Metaphor and Morality ......................... 25
Reverend William E. Stempsey, S.J.
Human Embryo Transfer and the Theology of the Body ........................... 43
Catherine Althaus
On the Moral Objectionability of Human Embryo Adoption ................... 69
Reverend Tadeusz Pacholczyk
Arguments for
Could Human Embryo Transfer Be Intrinsically Immoral? ..................... 85
Christopher O. Tollefsen
Ethical Considerations in Defense of Embryo Adoption ............................ 103
Brandon P. Brown and Jason T. Eberl
Real Mothers and Good Stewards: The Ethics
of Embryo Adoption ...................................................................................... 119
Sarah-Vaughan Brakman
vii
viii Contents
Part II The Debate Engaged
Embryo Adoption Theologically Considered: Bodies, Adoption,
and the Common Good .................................................................................. 141
Darlene Fozard Weaver
From Rescuing Frozen Embryos to Respecting the Limits of Nature:
Reframing the Embryo Adoption Debate .................................................... 161
Paul Lauritzen
Embryo Adoption? An Egalitarian Perspective ........................................... 175
Mary B. Mahowald
A Protestant View: The Ethics of Embryo Adoption
and the Catholic Tradition ............................................................................ 199
Eric Gregory
Part III Morality in the Practice
Development of the National Embryo Donation Center ............................ 221
Jeffrey Keenan
An Embryo Adoptive Father’s Perspective ................................................. 231
John Stanmeyer
An Embryo Adoptive Mother’s Perspective ................................................ 237
Suzanne Stanmeyer
Ethical and Religious Directives for a Catholic Embryo
Adoption Agency: A Thought Experiment .................................................. 251
John Berkman and Kristen N. Carey
Embryo Adoption and the Law .................................................................... 275
Elizabeth Cason Crosby Cheely
Artifi cial Wombs and Embryo Adoption ..................................................... 307
Christopher Kaczor
Index ................................................................................................................ 323
Contributors
Catherine Althaus, Ph.D.
Australia and New Zealand School of Government Research Fellow, Political
Science Program, Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National
University, Canberra, Australia, former Queensland Government Treasury official,
and Associate Fellow, Centre for Governance and Public Policy, Griffith University
in Brisbane, Australia.
John Berkman, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Moral Philosophy and Moral Theology, Dominican School
of Philosophy and Theology and of Graduate Theological Union, both in Berkeley,
California, USA.
Sarah-Vaughan Brakman, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Philosophy, Villanova University, Villanova, Pennsylvania,
USA and Visiting Fellow, James Madison Program, Department of Politics, Princeton
University, Princeton, New Jersey, USA.
Brandon P. Brown
Third year medical student, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis,
Indiana, USA and graduate student in philosophy, concentration in bioethics,
Department of Philosophy, Indiana University School of Liberal Arts, Indiana
University-Purdue University Indianapolis, Indiana, USA.
Kristen N. Carey
Third year medical student, Harvard Medical School, Harvard University, Boston,
Massachusetts, USA, and 2005 Marshall and Fulbright finalist.
Elizabeth Cason Crosby Cheely, J.D.
Of Counsel, Stone, Granade & Crosby, P.C., Bay Minette, Alabama, USA.
Jason T. Eberl, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Indiana University-Purdue University
Indianapolis and Affiliate Faculty of the Indiana University Center for Bioethics,
Indianapolis, Indiana, USA.
ix
x Contributors
Eric Gregory, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Religion, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey,
USA.
Christopher Kaczor, Ph.D.
Director of the University Honors Program, The Catholic University of America,
Washington, DC.
Jeffrey Keenan, M.D., FACOG, HCLD
Director, National Embryo Donation Center, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA, Director,
Division of Reproductive Endocrinology & Infertility, Department of Obstetrics &
Gynecology, University of Tennessee Medical Center, College of Medicine, Knoxville,
Tennessee, USA, Partner, Southeastern Center for Fertility and Reproductive Surgery,
Knoxville, Tennessee, USA.
Paul Lauritzen, Ph.D.
Director of the Program in Applied Ethics and Professor of Religious Studies, John
Carroll University, Cleveland, Ohio, USA.
Mary Briody Mahowald, Ph.D.
Professor Emerita, The University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA.
Reverend Tadeusz Pacholczyk, Ph.D.
Director of Education, The National Catholic Bioethics Center, Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, USA.
Suzanne Stanmeyer, M.A. and John Stanmeyer (candidate for M.A.)
Adoptive parents, ten children: the first through traditional adoption and the remaining
nine as embryos. Only one of the nine embryos survived to birth; Virginia, USA.
Reverend William E. Stempsey, S.J., M.D., Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Philosophy, The College of the Holy Cross, Worcester,
Massachusetts, USA.
Christopher O. Tollefsen, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Philosophy, University of
South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina, USA.
Darlene Fozard Weaver, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Theology and Director of Theology Institute, Villanova
University, Villanova, Pennsylvania, USA.