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Technology and Pregnancy Enhancement
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ments sperm and egg is irrelevant. From the ethical perspective, however,
this factor is more significant than the technological differences among the
various procedures, because they employ sperm derived from different
sources (for example, AIH and AID are distinct acts). AID introduces sperm
from a third party, with the result that the genetic makeup of the offspring is
the product of the combination of the genes of a woman and those of some
one other than her husband. In AIH, only the husband’s sperm is used to
impregnate the wife, thereby maintaining the closed nature of the marital
relationship in the procreative process. In the same way, practices such as
IVF and GIFT carry differing implications depending on whose sperm is
being united with whose egg.
Some ethicists have rejected all these procedures on the basis that they
employ masturbation in the process. This objection, however, is not war
ranted. The ethical problem with masturbation does not lie in the act itself,
but in the dangers that surround the practice, such as the risk of developing
into a self-gratifying habit, dependent on pornography to maintain. The act
of masturbation that provides sperm for procedures such as artificial insem
ination, however, generally does not carry these dangers. The potential
problems with these procedures lie elsewhere.
Unless there are other complicating factors, procedures that use a wife’s
egg and a husband’s sperm are gaining widespread acceptance.
Of these, AIH is the simplest, and it generally engenders no grave con
cerns for Christian ethicists.9The use of the husband’s sperm maintains the
integrity of both the marriage relationship and of the genetic inheritance of
the offspring produced by the process. In fact, when utilized within the cov
enant of marriage, AIH ought to be greeted as a helpful means that assists in
the formation of new life—the natural offspring of the marital union—giving
expression to the creative love present in the union of that husband and wife.
Whenever it uses only the wife’s egg and the husband’s sperm, GIFT
could also gain wide acceptance among Christians. In vitro fertilization
(IVF) may likewise serve as a helpful way of bringing together the elements
from an otherwise infertile married couple. But it introduces certain other
complications that increase the potential for ethical problems. These will be
discussed later.
b.
The introduction of a third party into the marriage bond.
Although man
( Christians find AIH relatively uncomplicated in its ethical implications, the
situation with other practices, beginning with AID and including IVF and
surrogacy, is somewhat more complicated.
(). Acceptance of AIH is not universal, however. Another argument voiced against AIH is
i
Ik*
cleavage it produces between sexual love and procreation. See Leon Kass, “New Begin
nings in Lite,” in
The New Genetics and the luiturc of Man,
ed. M. Hamilton (Grand Rapids:
lu rdmans, 1<>72), 5 * 54.