Donum vitae (instruction)
Donum Vitae , Instruction on Respect for the Incipient Human Life and the Dignity of Reproduction, is a document issued on February 22, 1987 by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith , chaired by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger . It deepens the valid and binding positions of the Catholic Church with regard to the protection of life , abortion , artificial insemination and prenatal diagnostics .
According to Donum Vitae , the child is defined as a person from the first moment of its existence - with the fusion of egg and sperm cell - so the embryo receives the same personal rights as the newborn and people of all ages. His right to life is to be respected and protected; it is inviolable and represents a fundamental moral value.
Prenatal examination methods are to be seen as "seriously contrary to the moral law" insofar as they consider the possibility of termination of pregnancy. A diagnosis that indicates the existence of a deformity or a hereditary disease should not be equivalent to a death sentence.
Part II of the instruction deals with the weighing of interventions in human reproduction from an ethical and moral point of view and, in addition to surrogacy, deals with both homologous and heterologous artificial insemination. Although it is recognized that sterility and the unfulfilled desire for a child can mean suffering for the couple, the Church sees in these techniques “the procreation of the human person objectively robs it of its own perfection: namely to be the goal and fruit of a marital act, through which the spouses become 'co-workers with God in giving life to a new human person' ”. Therefore, the act of love in marriage should be seen as the only place worthy of human procreation and, ultimately, for this reason, homologous artificial insemination also remains "a morally impermissible technique, because it robs human procreation of its own and natural dignity". Heterologous artificial insemination, on the other hand, contradicts the dignity of the married couple and the doctrine that the conception of children is linked to marriage. Therefore, this form of artificial insemination violates "the unity of marriage, the dignity of the married couple, the vocation proper to the parents and the right of the child to be conceived and given birth in and through marriage."
The third part of the instruction deals with questions of morality in the context of state legislation.