Embryo Adoption

 

There is no small amount of debate in pro-life circles regarding the fate of children already conceived via in-vitro fertilization (IVF).  While we all condemn the process of IVF as grossly immoral, that doesn't erase our duty of care to those children already conceived via IVF.  They are innocent of the crime behind their conception, just as is the innocent child conceived via rape or incest.  The article below touches upon this matter.  The Defend Life publication to which the authors refer can be found at the Defend Life website and clicking on "newsletters" on the left side bar.

Wake Up, Pro-Lifers! Embryo Adoption is Morally Licit!

The Church Calls Abandoned Embryos "Orphans"; Defends Embryo Transfer as "Licit"; and Promotes "Prenatal Adoption" as "Praiseworthy"!

 

We are responding to Dr. Monica Miller's very troubling comments in the June 2026 issue of Defend Life. Unfortunately, Dr. Miller, like Fr. Tad Pacholczyk at The National Catholic Bioethics Center, is strongly opposed to Embryo Adoption (EA) and both argue that Dignitas personae 19 has already condemned Embryo Adoption (EA). This is a flawed conclusion. 

 

What Dignitas personae 19 actually condemns as "ethically unacceptable" is allowing "infertile couples" to use – and destroy - leftover frozen human embryos as a "fertility treatment" that is commonly referred to as "Three-Parent IVF" – also known as Mitochondrial Replacement Therapy (MRT) – that artificially creates an embryo using DNA from two mothers and one father. MRT is "heterologous procreation" and a new form of "surrogacy".

 

After condemning MRT as a destructive use of frozen embryos by "infertile couples" as an immoral "treatment for infertility", DP 19 then starts a new paragraph and mentions the proposal of prenatal adoption for the first time:

 

            "It has also been proposed, solely in order to allow human beings to be born who are otherwise condemned to destruction, that there could be a form of 'prenatal adoption'. This proposal, praiseworthy with regard to the intention of respecting and defending human life, presents however, various problems not dissimilar to those mentioned above." 

 

Dr. Miller incorrectly claims that the article in the March-April newsletter "totally misquoted DP 19" and wrongly concludes that "DP teaches that EA is not a moral option." She focuses on "various problems not dissimilar to those mentioned above." But a careful reading of the "various problems" in the previous paragraph identifies them as "problems of a medical, psychological, and legal nature". These are not moral problems, and, regrettably, it is Dr. Miller herself – and Fr. Tad - who are stubbornly misrepresenting DP 19. 

 

In DP 18, Pope Benedict XVI himself refers to frozen embryos as "orphans":

 

            "The majority of embryos that are not used remain 'orphans'. Their parents do not ask for them and at times all trace of the parents is lost."

 

And importantly, why does Dr. Miller – and Fr. Tad – overlook Donum vitae I, 3 that is magisterially cited in the Catechism of the Catholic Church n. 2275?

 

"Are Therapeutic Procedures Carried Out on the Human Embryo Licit? 

            As with all medical interventions on patients, one must uphold as licit procedures carried out on the human embryo which respect the life and integrity of the embryo and do not involve disproportionate risks for it but are directed towards its healing, the improvement of its condition of health, or its individual survival."

 

            The Blessed Mother has asked pro-lifers to "Wake Up" many times in her messages. "Women Against the Killing and Exploitation of Unprotected Persons" was founded because of her urgent messages to stop the "Killing and Exploitation of Unprotected Persons." 

 

Who could be more unprotected than a frozen and orphaned human embryo?

 

 

Dr. Elizabeth B. Rex, MBA, PhD, ThD (cand.)

Catholic Bioethicist

Associate Scholar, The Charlotte Lozier Institute

President, The Donum Vitae Institute

Mobile: 914-629-3710

 

Missy Reilly Smith

Foundress and President

WAKEUP 

Women Against the Killing and Exploitation of

Unprotected Persons

wakeup.mom

202 288-4984