NPC 8 Debate "In Vitro Fertilization"

In Vitro Fertilization or Insemination

 The family is one of the most important aspects in our society; every person in every family represents an elemental part of this institution, and for the majority of the human beings the family is the core of the life. As we know, the common family is composed by parents and children; however some couples have problems to conceive kids, but know they have options to become parents, for example in vitro fertilization or artificial insemination. The problem is that in some countries this kind of practices are not allowed and have different positions regarding the methods used.

In terms of law, the government of Costa Rica does not allow this kind of practice since 2000, but along this years, some couples have been claimed for the this law to change. At this time there are almost nine couples whom have been sued the government because this law in front of the CIDH (Inter-American Commission of Human Rights), they said that there is a human right to have a family and Costa Rica is violating this right for those families that cannot conceive children. Because of that and in order to avoid a trial, the government of Costa Rica has been presented a new law to allow the in vitro fertilization in our country, but with some conditions, for example: there is forbidden to store, freeze and discard ovules, and all the fertilized ovules must be implanted in to the uterus of the women who produced them; the use of this kind of conditions is to not go over the Costarrican’s idiosyncrasy which said: “To protect the human life before the born” 

From the religious point of view, there are several important points regarding in vitro fertilization, between them are two principal procedures or methods: homologous or heterologuos fertilization, the legal procedure for the church is the homologous, because use the ovule from the wife and the semen from the husband,  working as a help or complement for the fecundation which is the principal purpose of the marriages; at the same time, the heterologous procedures has the same goal but in contrast of the homologous this use only one, the ovule or semen of the couple and the other part came from a bank of sperm, catalogs of donors, or use a surrogate-mother. The heterologous process it what the church is against, because interrupt the focus of the marriages including a third person in their life.  Another point of view is related to semen collection, for the church, this is not legal since this procedure use really often the masturbation and for them this is a sign of disassociation of the unit of the conjugal act.

For the science part this procedure is preferred for the quality of the semen and for better results. One of the achievements is give the option for people that is unable to raise their own family due to different circumstances, for example infertility or genetics problems. Among with this the scientist has lost of enemies regarding these procedures, most of the time related to the idea that a fertilized cell is not yet a human being. During science history the discoveries of the most famous scientist have been discussed and discard by church most of the time and society as well. In the other hand, scientists believe that the development of the human body in women is not complete until they have a child; others say this is not true but lots of studies have proved them wrong. The constant development of technology has helped to increase the families that try new procedures like this one in order to have children, and every day more tools and ideas are in the market waiting for people needed to take them and complete their dreams.

The moral / ethics position of the church is an issue because there is a lots points of view contrast the position of the science and put us to think about the right that the couples have to create or form a family. Related to the law, it is important the right of the humans being to procreate but also is important to take in mind the consequences that the children could have in a future when has to in front his or her reality.