07/04/2025
The NCBC’s new book, Human Embryo Adoption, vol 2: Catholic Arguments For and Against, presents two opposing perspectives on the moral foundation of embryo adoption:
Irene Alexander argues,
“The embryo adoption issue has brought to the forefront of contemporary bioethical thinking an underlying philosophical divide that Catholic bioethicists cannot ignore: the new natural law analysis of the moral object eschews the underlying philosophy of nature as integral to defining what a moral act is. … Sound moral thinking, especially in bioethics, requires the ethicist to consider the nature of the action chosen in specifying the moral object. This is distinct from a purely first-person perspective, where a moral object is determined by reference to a strict view of the agent’s intention—that is, what he understands himself to be doing through his own interior choice—which he then projects onto a morally neutral external act.”
Christopher Reilly asks
“the Holy Spirit [to] inspire the unbounded charitable energy of Christian couples who desire to extend compassion and the fulfillment of purpose and justice owed to some of the most endangered and mistreated human beings—children of God who are literally frozen and held captive pending their demise, mistreatment in scientific experiments, and destruction. It is the adoptive couples who are at the center of the moral drama of embryo adoption and who are inappropriately discouraged by those who argue against the astonishing goodness of such an act of love.”
What do you think? Share your thoughts in the comments below, we would love to hear from you!
Human Embryo Adoption vol. 2 is only $34.95 and available at the NCBC’s online store, and a bundle of Human Embryo Adoption vol. 2 and Human Embryo Adoption vol. 1: Biotechnology, Marriage, and the Right to Life, is only $39.95.
https://www.ncbcenter.org/store/human-embryo-adoption-vol-2-catholic-arguments-for-and-against
