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Home  / News & Publications /  Michigan Catholic News / 2008 /  Some infertility treatments OK with Church teaching

by Robert Delaney of The Michigan Catholic
May 23, 2008

Detroit — Catholic couples struggling to have children should not too quickly assume their only alternative to the illicit technique of in vitro fertilization is to just live with infertility.

That was the message a Dominican priest and a local doctor delivered at Madonna University in Livonia at a program last month sponsored by the Detroit Guild of the Catholic Medical Association.

Fr. Christopher Saliga, OP, a registered nurse and health care ethicist, and Daniel Greene, M.D., a board-certified obstetrician and gynecologist affiliated with Crittenton Hospital in Rochester, addressed both the ethical-moral issues and practical alternatives involved in treating infertility. They explained those ideas in recent telephone interviews.

According to Catholic teaching, both the unitive and procreative aspects must be present when a new life is created – that is, the mother and father much be united in the conjugal act, Fr. Saliga explains.

The reason the Church condemns IVF is because the sperm and egg are brought together in a petri dish in vitro means "in glass") outside the mother's body by a technician.

"So, there is the introduction of a third person into the process, almost like there would be if one of the spouses were having an affair," Fr. Saliga says.

But the Church is not anti-science, he continues, and married Catholic couples are free to make use of technologies that do not violate the good of procreation in the context of the coming together of the mother and father in the marital act.

The Church has no objection to people being examined and assessed to see whether "there might be an underlying problem that is fixable," Fr. Saliga points out.

Such examinations should, however, be carried out in keeping with Church teaching, says Greene, as would be done for women at Greene's practice, Contemporary OB/GYN in Rochester.

A man, however, would consult a urologist. But, for example, if the man's sperm is to be analyzed, the sample must not be obtained by masturbation.

Greene says in 30 percent of cases, the problem lies with the male, in another 30 percent with the female, and in 40 percent it is with both or unknown.

Greene says one of the most basic techniques he recommends, and which is fully compatible with Church teaching is an offshoot of the Natural Family Planning movement. It simply involves observing the woman's natural fertility signs and the couple then timing their conjugal relations to coincide with her periods of maximum fertility.

And he says there are health issues affecting fertility that can be addressed by changes in diet or treatment with medicine; man's ability to father a child might even be enhanced by wearing boxer shorts instead of briefs.

Fr. Saliga also says there are some techniques that assist the natural process of procreation, not replace it, and therefore – barring a specific condemnation by the Church – Catholics are free to use.

Greene cites two such complex procedures, one known as Intra-Uterine Insemination and the other commonly called GIFT, for Gamete Intra-Fallopian Transfer. Both involve enhancing the likelihood of successful in vivo fertilization (that is, within the woman's body) using sperm or eggs obtained by licit means. "The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops says these two procedures are OK unless and until the Church says otherwise," Greene says.

If all of these prove fruitless, however, what remains is to counsel a couple on the possibility of adoption or for them to consider "the possibility God is calling them to be a family without children," Fr. Saliga says.

Or as Greene puts it: "How do we accept God's plan for us, and how do we work within the guidelines the Church has shown us are compatible with God's plan for marriage and family?"

For more information, contact Dr. Daniel Greene at (248) 656-2022.