Instruction on Respect for Human Life in its Origin and on the Dignity of Procreation (Donum vitae)
Overview
For nearly 500 years, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) has defended the Catholic Church from internal heresy—whether by false teaching or malpractice of faith. It is the oldest of the Curia’s nine congregations, and is made up of cardinals, bishops, priests, lay theologians, and canon lawyers. According to Pope Paul VI’s 1965 Motu Proprio Integrae Servandae, “All questions which regard the doctrine on faith and morals or which touch upon the faith are within the competence of the Congregation … It examines new teachings and new opinions in whatever way they are spread, it promotes studies in this area, and encourages the Congresses of scholars; it condemns those teachings found to be contrary to the principles of the faith, after, however, having heard the view of the Bishops of those regions, if they are specifically connected with the issues.”
Top Highlights
“The human being must be respected—as a person—from the very first instant of his existence” (source)
“A true and proper right to a child would be contrary to the child’s dignity and nature. The child is not an object to which one has a right, nor can he be considered as an object of ownership: rather, a child is a gift, ‘the supreme gift’58 and the most gratuitous gift of marriage, and is a living testimony of the mutual giving of his parents. For this reason, the child has the right, as already mentioned, to be the fruit of the specific act of the conjugal love of his parents; and he also has the right to be respected as a person from the moment of his conception.” (source)
“These reasons lead to a negative moral judgment concerning heterologous artificial fertilization: consequently fertilization of a married woman with the sperm of a donor different from her husband and fertilization with the husband’s sperm of an ovum not coming from his wife are morally illicit. Furthermore, the artificial fertilization of a woman who is unmarried or a widow, whoever the donor may be, cannot be morally justified.” (source)
“Such fertilization entrusts the life and identity of the embryo into the power of doctors and biologists and establishes the domination of technology over the origin and destiny of the human person. Such a relationship of domination is in itself contrary to the dignity and equality that must be common to parents and children.” (source)
“The one conceived must be the fruit of his parents’ love. He cannot be desired or conceived as the product of an intervention of medical or biological techniques; that would be equivalent to reducing him to an object of scientific technology.” (source)
- Title: Instruction on Respect for Human Life in its Origin and on the Dignity of Procreation (Donum vitae)
- Author: Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
- Publisher: Libreria Editrice Vaticana
- Print Publication Date: 1987
- Logos Release Date: 2014
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subjects: Artificial insemination, Human; Christian ethics › Catholic authors; Fertilization in vitro, Human
- Resource ID: LLS:NSTRCTNRSPCTHMN
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2024-03-25T20:28:25Z