From the Friars: Wombs for Rent
The law of God is written in our hearts, often referred to as the natural law. (Rom 2:15) And our reason gives us the ability to discern right from wrong. But our fallen nature tends toward selfishness and the desire to decide right and wrong for ourselves, apart from our Creator. This was the original sin and things haven’t changed much.
Since the 1930’s the natural law has been increasingly rejected by the American legal system. Right and wrong are now based only on the will of those in power, a clear road to tyranny. Legal abortion is the most glaring example of this. Lately the issue of surrogate motherhood has become more well known and debated. This is when a woman carries and gives birth to a child for another person or couple. There are many forms that this can take and there are many reasons why it is always a violation of human dignity and harmful to everyone involved, especially the birth mother and the child.
The most common form of surrogacy is when a woman signs a commercial contract stating the amount of money that she will receive and her obligation to agree to the legal adoption of the child by the contracting person or couple. Church teaching emphasizes that children are a gift from God, not objects of production or commerce, and they have the right to be born of their mother and to be the fruit of a mutual self-gift in the marriage act of their mother and father.
Sometimes extreme cases help make immoral practices more apparent. Chinese billionaire Xu Bo has admitted to fathering over 100 children through U.S. based surrogates. A child could have biological parents, a surrogate mother and adoptive parents who are all different people. It is obvious how this practice can and does lead to the exploitation of poor women. Pope Francis called surrogacy despicable and referred to its commercial aspect as human trafficking, calling for a universal ban.
“Israel would not obey, … so I left them in their stubbornness of heart, to follow their own designs.” (Psalm 81) We will reap what we have sown.
May the Lord grant us the grace of repentance and conversion.
Amen.
–Fr. Peter
