Notes
[1] Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Instruction Donum vitae on respect for human life at its origins and for the dignity of procreation (22 February 1987): AAS 80 (1988), 70-102.
[2] John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Veritatis splendor regarding certain fundamental questions of the Church’s moral teaching (6 August 1993): AAS 85 (1993), 1133-1228.
[3] John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Evangelium vitae on the value and inviolability of human life (25 March 1995): AAS 87 (1995), 401-522.
[4] John Paul II, Address to the participants in the Seventh Assembly of the Pontifical Academy of Life (3 March 2001), 3: AAS 93 (2001), 446.
[5] Cf. John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Fides et ratio on the relationship between faith and reason (14 September 1998), 1: AAS 91 (1999), 5.
[6] Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Instruction Donum vitae, I, 1: AAS 80 (1988), 79.
[7] Human rights, as Pope Benedict XVI has recalled, and in particular the right to life of every human being “are based on the natural law inscribed on human hearts and present in different cultures and civilizations. Removing human rights from this context would mean restricting their range and yielding to a relativistic conception, according to which the meaning and interpretation of rights could vary and their universality would be denied in the name of different cultural, political, social and even religious outlooks. This great variety of viewpoints must not be allowed to obscure the fact that not only rights are universal, but so too is the human person, the subject of those rights” (Address to the General Assembly of the United Nations [18 April 2008]: AAS 100 [2008], 334).
[8] Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Instruction Donum vitae, I, 1: AAS 80 (1988), 78-79.
[9] Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Instruction Donum vitae, II, A, 1: AAS 80 (1988), 87.
[10] Paul VI, Encyclical Letter Humanae vitae (25 July 1968), 8: AAS 60 (1968), 485-486.
[11] Benedict XVI, Address to the Participants in the International Congress organized by the Pontifical Lateran University on the 40th Anniversary of the Encyclical Humanae vitae, 10 May 2008: L’Osservatore Romano, 11 May 2008, p. 1; cf. John XXIII, Encyclical Letter Mater et magistra (15 May 1961), III: AAS 53 (1961), 447.
[12] Second Vatican Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et spes, 22.
[13] Cf. John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Evangelium vitae, 37-38: AAS 87 (1995), 442-444.
[14] John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Veritatis splendor, 45: AAS 85 (1993), 1169.
[15] Benedict XVI, Address to the General Assembly of the Pontifical Academy for Life and International Congress on “The Human Embryo in the Pre-implantation Phase” (27 February 2006): AAS 98 (2006), 264.
[16] Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Instruction Donum vitae, Introduction, 3: AAS 80 (1988), 75.
[17] John Paul II, Apostolic Exhortation Familiaris consortio on the role of the Christian family in the modern world (22 September 1981), 19: AAS 74 (1982), 101-102.
[18] Cf. Second Vatican Council, Declaration Dignitatis humanae, 14.
[19] Cf. Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Instruction Donum vitae, II, A, 1: AAS 80 (1988), 87.
[20] Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Instruction Donum vitae, II, B, 4: AAS 80 (1988), 92.
[21] Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Instruction Donum vitae, Introduction, 3: AAS 80 (1988), 75.
[22] The term heterologous artificial fertilization or procreation refers to “techniques used to obtain a human conception artificially by the use of gametes coming from at least one donor other than the spouses who are joined in marriage” (Instruction Donum vitae, II: AAS 80 [1988], 86).
[23] The term homologous artificial fertilization or procreation refers to “the technique used to obtain a human conception using the gametes of the two spouses joined in marriage” (Instruction Donum vitae, II: AAS 80 [1988], 86).
[24] Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Instruction Donum vitae, II, B, 7: AAS 80 (1988), 96; cf. Pius XII, Address to those taking part in the Fourth International Congress of Catholic Doctors (29 September 1949): AAS 41 (1949), 560.
[25] Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Instruction Donum vitae, II, B, 6: AAS 80 (1988), 94.
[26] Cf. Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Instruction Donum vitae, II: AAS 80 (1988), 86.
[27] Currently the number of embryos sacrificed, even in the most technically advanced centers of artificial fertilization, hovers above 80%.
[28] John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Evangelium vitae, 14: AAS 87 (1995), 416.
[29] Cf. Pius XII, Address to the Second World Congress in Naples on human reproduction and sterility (19 May 1956): AAS 48 (1956), 470; Paul VI, Encyclical Letter Humanae vitae, 12: AAS 60 (1968), 488-489; Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Instruction Donum vitae, II, B, 4-5: AAS 80 (1988), 90-94.
[30] An increasing number of persons, even those who are unmarried, are having recourse to techniques of artificial reproduction in order to have a child. These actions weaken the institution of marriage and cause babies to be born in environments which are not conducive to their full human development.
[31] Benedict XVI, Address to the General Assembly of the Pontifical Academy for Life and International Congress on “The Human Embryo in the Pre-implantation Phase” (27 February 2006): AAS 98 (2006), 264.
[32] Intracytoplasmic sperm injection is similar in almost every respect to other forms of in vitro fertilization with the difference that in this procedure fertilization in the test tube does not take place on its own, but rather by means of the injection into the oocyte of a single sperm, selected earlier, or by the injection of immature germ cells taken from the man.
[33] There is ongoing discussion among specialists regarding the health risks which this method may pose for children conceived in this way.
[34] Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Instruction Donum vitae, II, B, 5: AAS 80 (1988), 93.
[35] Cryopreservation of embryos refers to freezing them at extremely low temperatures, allowing long term storage.
[36] Cf. Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Instruction Donum vitae, I, 6: AAS 80 (1988), 84-85.
[37] Cf. numbers 34-35 below.
[38] Cf. Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Instruction Donum vitae, II, A, 1-3: AAS 80 (1988), 87-89.
[39] John Paul II, Address to the participants in the Symposium on “Evangelium vitae and Law” and the Eleventh International Colloquium on Roman and Canon Law (24 May 1996), 6: AAS 88 (1996), 943-944.
[40] Cryopreservation of oocytes is also indicated in other medical contexts which are not under consideration here. The term oocyte refers to the female germ cell (gametocyte) not penetrated by the spermatozoa.
[41] Cf. Second Vatican Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et spes, n. 51; John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Evangelium vitae, 62: AAS 87 (1995), 472.
[42] John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Evangelium vitae, 63: AAS 87 (1995), 473.
[43] The interceptive methods which are best known are the IUD (intrauterine device) and the so-called “morning-after pills”.
[44] The principal means of contragestation are RU-486 (Mifepristone), synthetic prostaglandins or Methotrexate.
[45] John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Evangelium vitae, 58: AAS 87 (1995), 467.
[46]Cf. CIC, can. 1398 and CCEO, can. 1450 § 2; cf. also CIC, can. 1323-1324. The Pontifical Commission for the Authentic Interpretation of the Code of Canon Law declared that the canonical concept of abortion is “the killing of the fetus in whatever way or at whatever time from the moment of conception” (Response of 23 May 1988: AAS 80 [1988], 1818).
[47] In the current state of knowledge, the techniques which have been proposed for accomplishing human cloning are two: artificial embryo twinning and cell nuclear transfer. Artificial embryo twinning consists in the artificial separation of individual cells or groups of cells from the embryo in the earliest stage of development. These are then transferred into the uterus in order to obtain identical embryos in an artificial manner. Cell nuclear transfer, or cloning properly speaking, consists in introducing a nucleus taken from an embryonic or somatic cell into an denucleated oocyte. This is followed by stimulation of the oocyte so that it begins to develop as an embryo.
[48] Cf. Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Instruction Donum vitae, I, 6: AAS 80 (1988), 84; John Paul II, Address to Members of the Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Holy See (10 January 2005), 5: AAS 97 (2005), 153.
[49] The new techniques of this kind are, for example, the use of human parthenogenesis, altered nuclear transfer (ANT) and oocyte assisted reprogramming (OAR).
[50] John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Evangelium vitae, 60: AAS 87 (1995), 469.
[51] Benedict XVI, Address to the participants in the Symposium on the topic: “Stem Cells: what is the future for therapy?” organized by the Pontifical Academy for Life (16 September 2006): AAS 98 (2006), 694.
[52] Cf. numbers 34-35 below.
[53] Cf. Benedict XVI, Address to the participants in the Symposium on the topic: “Stem Cells: what is the future for therapy?” organized by the Pontifical Academy for Life (16 September 2006): AAS 98 (2006), 693-695.
[54] John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Evangelium vitae, 63: AAS 87 (1995), 472-473.
[55] Cf. John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Evangelium vitae, 62: AAS 87 (1995), 472.
[56] Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Instruction Donum vitae, I, 4: AAS 80 (1988), 83.
[57] Cf. John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Evangelium vitae, 73: AAS 87 (1995), 486: “Abortion and euthanasia are thus crimes which no human law can claim to legitimize. There is no obligation in conscience to obey such laws; instead there is a grave and clear obligation to oppose them by conscientious objection”. The right of conscientious objection, as an expression of the right to freedom of conscience, should be protected by law.
[58] John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Evangelium vitae, 63: AAS 89 (1995), 502.
[59] John Paul II, Letter to all the Bishops on “The Gospel of Life” (19 May 1991): AAS 84 (1992), 319.
