ARTIFICIAL

INSEMINATION
AS AN
INTERVENTION
UPON
HUMAN
PROCREATION:
A MORAL
EVALUATION
Background
 • (for animals) to increase the
productivity of food producing animals

• (for humans) to help couples to

conceive in case of severe male factor
subfertility of a physical or
psychological nature
• more commonly used in women
(lesbians or single women) with no
male partner, in these cases the
sperm is provided by a sperm donor
 Statement of the Problem
This research seeks to evaluate the morality
of Artificial Insemination. In order to
address the central problem, the following
sub-problems are formulated:

• What is Artificial Insemination?

• What does the Church say about Artificial
Insemination?
• Is Artificial Insemination morally acceptable?
 Assumption of the Study

• Since Artificial Insemination is another

means of procreating, it is morally
acceptable.
 Definition of Terms
• Artificial Insemination
– an impregnation not by means of
natural intercourse but by means of
mechanical, artificial aids such as
injecting the semen or sperm directly
into the female sex organ by the use of
a tuberculin syringe.
 • Homologous Insemination
– The source of the sperm cell is the
husband.

• Heterologous Insemination
– The source of the sperm cell is a donor,
generally unknown.
 In Vitro Fertilization
– The fusion of the human reproductive
cells in an extra-corporeal way.
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

• 1455 – Henry IV,

King of Castile,
nicknamed The
Impotent
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

• 1784 (more than 100

years later) – the first
artificial insemination
in a dog by the
scientist Lazzaro
Spallanzani
 • 1770 (London) – the first
documented application of
Artificial Insemination in humans
by John Hunter

• Mid 1800s – 55 inseminations

• 1899 – attempts to develop

practical methods for artificial
insemination
• 1953 – the first successful pregnancy
from artificial insemination with frozen
sperm

• 1970s – sperm bank industry

• 1978 – the introduction of In-Vitro

Fertilization
 • The following measurements became
common practice:
– because of the possible transmission of
sexually transmitted diseases, by the
use of fresh sperm screening for
infections of donors and donations has
become required
– In order to diminish the chances of
unknown marriage of biological
siblings among Artificial Inseminated
children, some government
regulations tightly restrict the number
of times a single donor’s semen may
be used and/or restrict the number of
children by a given donor
 • A lot of countries all over the world
have not approved the use of Artificial
Insemination

• point of debate: whether the donor has

to be anonymous or not, and when to
inform and what to tell Artificial
Inseminated children about their
biological parentage, if non-anonymous
donors are used
Church Teachings
 Pope Pius XII
• Insemination outside
the natural act of
intercourse would
convert the
sanctuary of the
family into nothing
more than a
biological laboratory
• Artificial insemination would separate
the unitive and procreative meanings
of sexual intercourse, sundering
human action what is divinely
intended to be inseparable
• Artificial insemination would entail
immoral means for procuring sperm
(masturbation)

• Artificial insemination using donor

sperm would violate the marriage
covenant requiring that procreation of
new life can only be the fruit of
marriage
 • from the moral point of view, the
unborn child must be the fruit of
marriage

• the procreation of a new person must

be the fruit and the sign of the mutual
self-giving of the spouses, of their love
and of their fidelity
• The fidelity of the spouses in the unity
of marriage involves reciprocal respect
of their right to become a father and
a mother only through each other

• The child has the right to be

conceived, carried in the womb,
brought into the world and brought up
within marriage
 • it is through the secure and
recognized relationship to his own
parents that the child can discover his
own identity and achieve his own
proper human development
 • The parents find in their child a
confirmation and completion of their
reciprocal self-giving: the child is the
living image of their love, the
permanent sign of their conjugal union,
the living and indissoluble concrete
expression of their paternity and
maternity
• the vitality and stability of society
require that children come into the
world within a family and that the
family be firmly based on marriage
 • The tradition of the Church and
anthropological reflection recognize in
marriage and in its indissoluble unity
the only setting worthy of truly
responsible procreation
• Respect for the unity of marriage and
for conjugal fidelity demands that the
child be conceived in marriage; the
bond existing between husband and
wife accords the spouses, in an
objective and inalienable manner, the
exclusive right to become father and
mother solely through each other
 • Recourse to the sperm of a third
person constitutes a violation of the
reciprocal commitment of the
spouses and a grave lack in regard to
that essential property of marriage
which is its unity
• Artificial Insemination violates the
rights of the child

• it deprives him of his filial relationship

with his parental origins and can hinder
the maturing of his personal identity
• it offends the common vocation of the
spouses who are called to fatherhood
and motherhood

• it objectively deprives conjugal

fruitfulness of its unity and integrity
• it brings about and manifests a rupture
between genetic parenthood,
gestational parenthood and
responsibility for upbringing
• subjectively good intentions do not
render Artificial Insemination
conformable to the objective and
inalienable properties of marriage or
respectful of the rights of the child and
of the spouses
• If the technical means facilitates the
conjugal act or helps it to reach its
natural objectives, it can be morally
acceptable. If, on the other hand, the
procedure were to replace the conjugal
act, it is morally illicit.
 CONCLUSION
• Artificial Insemination is prohibited
because it is contrary to the covenant
of marriage, the unity of the spouses,
and the dignity proper to parents and
the child. it separates procreation from
the marital act in its unitive
significance.
 BIBLIOGRAPHY
• Donum Vitae Module 19 AC (on Artificial
Insemination)
• Flannery, Austin. Vatican Council II: The Conciliar
and Post Conciliar Documents, Philippines:
Paulines Publishing House, 1975
• Guttmacher AF. The Role of Artificial Insemination
in the Treatment of Human Sterility, New York:
Acad Med. 1943.
• Heiderich, Paul G. The Moral Implications of
Artificial Insemination and Test Tube Babies, South
Dakota: Montana District Pastoral Conference,
1980.
• Ivanoff EI. On the Use of Artificial Insemination for
Zootechnical Purposes in Russia. Russia: J
Agricultural Science, 1922.
• Nabor-Nery, Maria Imelda Pastrana. Christian
Morality and Ethics, Philippines: National Bookstore,
2010
• Ombelet, Willem and Robays, Johan. History of
Human Artificial Insemination, Belgium: Genk
Institute for Fertility Technology, Department of
Obstetrics and Gynecology, 2010.
• Perry, EJ. The Artificial Insemination of Farm
Animals (Fourth Edition), New York: Rutgers
University Press, 1968.
• Stoughton, RH. Artificial Human Insemination.

• United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic
Health Care Services (Fifth Edition), USA: United
States Conference of Catholic Bishops, 2009.
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