“All practices of heterologous insemination permitted by the present law, such as insemination with sperm or egg cells from persons other than the couple itself and the donation of embryos, are morally illegitimate”, declare the Portuguese bishops in a pastoral statement issued in recent days, with regard to the new law on medically assisted procreation, in force since 26 July 2006. “These methods – add the bishops – do not solve the infertility of the couple and separate physical from affective and relational fatherhood and motherhood”. The bishops also oppose the use of surplus embryos: “Their use for scientific research is not morally legitimate, due to the dignity of the human being that is already present in the embryo”. “Catholic morality in this field – the bishops maintain – is based on the truth of the creation, the dignity of conjugal love and the promotion of marriage as the foundation of the family. It is not a sum of prohibitions. It represents an incentive to scientific research to bring an aid as far as possible to situations of infertility”. The bishops also appeal to couples that fail to have children to “exercise their own parental capacity in another way, for example through adoption or service to others, to children in need in particular”.
