Assistive Reproductive Technologies: Caught in the Middle

There are currently a variety of assistive reproductive technologies (ARTs) with which medical practitioners might intervene and aid in the reproductive process, and the possibilities only grow. Roman Catholics have staked a position on these technologies in the document, Dignitas personae. While only a subset of denominations, the Communion of Protestant Churches in Europe has done the same in their document, Before I formed you in the womb…, which seems fairly representative of the mainline Protestant view. Evangelicals (with which I will, though it pains me, group the Churches of Christ for this post) have staked no such claim—and I’m anxious to see where things go.

The positions of the aforementioned Catholic and Mainline documents are summarized below. Give it a glance and it should be immediately obvious the stark contrast between the two. In every case but surgery on fallopian tubes, they disagree. Maybe more telling than their disagreement is the pattern for each: the Roman Catholic approach is largely prohibitive, whereas the mainline Protestant approach is overwhelmingly affirming (though it may be hard to get a straight answer). 

Taken at their best, what do we see in these two approaches? The mainline Protestant view is perhaps a little simpler: it emphasizes the creation of life and the alleviating of suffering (specifically the psychological turmoil of struggling parents). The Roman Catholic view, however, can be a little less intuitive—do not Catholics also value life? While they certainly do, what comes out in this document is their insistence: yes to life, but not at any cost. If a technology that helps generate a good comes at the cost of what it means for a marriage to flourish, it’s not worth it. (There’s a lot more nuance for both, but you’ll have to go read the actual documents for that.)

I say I’m anxious to see where Evangelicals land on all this because I honestly don’t know who they side with more. In as much as the Catholic-Mainline divide represents a conservative-liberal divide, it would seem obvious that Evangelicals will lean toward their conservative companions in Rome. Yet, if we characterize Dignitas personae as restrictive and Before I formed you in the womb… as liberatory, the independent and autonomous spirit of Evangelicals seems much more closely aligned with the CPCE.

Although I imagine these sort of shallow, cultural trajectories are much more likely to determine the course of Evangelical thought, my hope is that those churches will wrestle with the actual theological question before them: do these technologies actually detract from our intended flourishing? Or are they tools that aid in God’s creative project and the gift of life?