The recently widely reported case of Nadya Suleman and the birth of her octuplets gives us an opportunity to reflect on a number of moral issues that surround In Vitro Fertilization. Questions include the morality of unwed pregnancy, the Church's teaching about In Vitro Fertilization itself, and the meaning of responsible parenthood.

1. Does the church condone the attempts of unmarried women to conceive?
Pope Benedict XVI in his recent instruction, Dignitatis Personae, reminds us: "The origin of human life has its authentic context in marriage and in the family, where it is generated through an act that expresses the reciprocal love between a man and a woman. Procreation that is truly responsible vis a vis the child to be born 'must be the fruit of marriage'" (n. 6).

The Church's teaching then is clear: Pregnancy belongs in marriage, and is not the "right" of a single person.

2. What does the Church say about the morality of In Vitro Fertilization?
The Church reminds us that "the procreation of a human person be brought about as the fruit of the conjugal act specific to the love between spouses" (DP, n. 12). "Human procreation is a personal act of a husband and wife that is not capable of substitution." Children are gifts, not products that are the result of a manufacturing process. In Vitro Fertilization is immoral.

---In Vitro Fertilization frequently involves the deliberate destruction of embryos through loss associated with multiple transfers or those directly discarded because of perceived defects.

---In Vitro Fertilization involves freezing embryos. This is a situation of injustice to these embryos since there is no moral solution for the thousands of abandoned embryos regarding their destiny, for they are and remain the subjects of essential human rights.

3. Some physicians have suggested that a woman pregnant with more than two fetuses should abort some or even most of her babies during her pregnancy. What does the Church say?
It is not uncommon for physicians to implant multiple embryos into a mother's womb, to increase the chances of pregnancy. However, this also increases the possibility of multiple pregnancy. This gives rise to the practice of "fetal reduction" in which embryos or fetuses are directly exterminated. This is abortion and is a grave moral disorder.

A women with multiple fetuses is to be supported in her decision not to abort any of her children, but here again is another one of the reasons for the condemnation of In Vitro Fertilization: it leads to the deliberate destruction of embryos, both before and after implantation in many, if not all cases.

4. If In Vitro Fertilization is forbidden by the church, what about the children that do result from this procedure in about one third of the attempts? Are they to be condemned?
Of course not. The church's moral assessment is clearly of the procedure. In Vitro Fertilization, the act of generation, is immoral and the parent or parents bear the primary moral responsibility for the choice. Similar to the moral status of children born out of wedlock, any children that result from In Vitro Fertilization are clearly innocent of wrongdoing and need to be accepted by the community as the children of God and should not be subject to any discrimination.

5. Some have suggested that it is immoral to have even one more child if a parent or parents have limited resources.
First the Church would remind us that only a married couple should contemplate pregnancy in the first place. Only after acknowledging that fact do we see that, indeed, the Church has spoken about the call to "responsible parenthood":

"In relation to physical, economic, psychological and social conditions, responsible parenthood is exercised, either by the deliberate and generous decision to raise a numerous family, or by the decision, made for grave motives and with due respect for the moral law, to avoid a new birth" (Humanae Vitae, n. 10).

This statement expects that any couple that has a large family has considered their "economic, psychological and social" resources in order to provide adequately for the care and education of their children.

In summary, we are reminded of why the Church finds In Vitro Fertilization a moral evil. In it, children are treated as a "right" rather than a gift, procreation is the result of a "process" of manufacturing a "product" rather than the result of an act of love, and the medical processes involve the "collateral damage" of frozen and abandoned embryos, the deliberate disposal of human embryos and even, at times, abortion.

Vincentian Father Richard Benson is academic dean and professor of moral theology at St. John's Seminary, Camarillo.