Mary Kenny‘Choice’ as a criterion will push scientific boundaries
The world-wide success, and increasingly common practice, of In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF), makes this form of assisted conception awkward to criticise.
The Catholic Church has never given IVF its approval: partly because the moral theology around conception is rooted in the direct ‘transmission of life’, as part of the marriage act between husband and wife.
This is a coherent aspect of the natural law, yet it seems unkind to make an issue of it. I know at least three couples who would not have been able to have children, but for IVF.
You don’t want to seem rejecting of living children who are obviously great blessings for their families.
But it’s not just IVF itself which may be problematic. It is also where IVF may lead. Significantly, it has taken one of the pioneers of IVF, Robert Winston, to issue a warning about its future implications.
Developments
Lord Winston has said that ongoing developments in IVF could “threaten our humanity” – leading to an ever-increasing demand for “designer babies” and a resurgence in the toxic philosophy of eugenics.
Speaking recently at the University of Kent, the fertility specialist warned that we are moving into a world where the rich will be able to “commission” babies with enhanced intelligence, musical ability and superior physique.
Moreover, he said, “desperate” childless couples were pushing scientific developments into areas beyond ethical boundaries.
Robert Winston’s Jewish faith makes him sensitive to the implications in this field. Judaism allows IVF because it regards assisting God in the act of creation to be beneficial: but, for observant Jews, that procedure must be within the family and marriage.
And the idea of ‘enhancing’ embryonic life – or indeed rejecting it – for reasons of looks or intelligence, or other ‘eugenic’ motives would certainly would be repugnant to Jewish thinking, as to Christians.
Yet, unfortunately, assisted conception and assisted contraception are all tied up, historically, in a very complex constellation here: birth control was originally driven, in some noted cases, by eugenics. And once it is established that ‘choice’ is the criterion for all measures, the logical consequence will be that individuals will demand designer babies as both a choice and a ‘right’.
Delicate souls and decent people
I’ve always had the impression that Bob Geldof is a decent person – and I’ve always thought that he probably developed his concern for Africa from his education at Blackrock College, Dublin, founded by the Holy Ghost Fathers, a fervantly missionary order.
The Greek writer Taki knows Geldof well and writes this about him: “He may use the F-word more than necessary at times, but he’s an extraordinary man. A rock star who neither drinks nor smokes, heís a walking encyclopaedia and [reads] serious books… The famed Band Aid and Live Aid organiser is a wonderful father as he is a family man. He has endured a lot of personal grief and has endured it with dignity.”
Taki also met Geldofís late daughter Peaches: “She was swell. Friendly and very polite, she had her father’s nous, and that means she had a lot of brainpower.”
Family man
In the wake of Peaches’ very sad death, in which heroin was a component, Bob Geldof has chosen to marry his long-term girlfriend, Jeanne, which Taki welcomes. It certainly is what ‘a family man’ would do.
The death of Peaches Geldof, mother of two young children, has attracted much public commentary, although what really happened is still not disclosed. I didn’t know her, but I have some small familiarity with the milieu she mixed in, and I think that world of ‘celebrity’, dilletante fashion, TV, media and living in a goldfish-bowl is aggressively competitive and horribly superficial.
You need to be very robust in yourself, and probably very rooted in a strong values system to be in that milieu and survive intact. It can destroy delicate souls.
A welcome change for the McConvilles
The one welcome development in the historic investigation into the murder of Jean McConville (pictured) is that her son Michael now says that “the Catholic community” in Belfast has become notably supportive towards him and his family.
The abduction of Mrs McConville, a mother of 10 children, was indeed one of the terrible events of the Troubles in Northern Ireland (and there were many terrible events, occurring on all sides of the conflict.) But even the Mafia, which visits heartless punishments on those who disobey their ‘code’, spares mothers of large families.
I thought it was disappointing to learn that, in 1972, the local Catholic clergy had not been conspicuous in supporting the McConvilles. Perhaps they felt intimidated at that time. Yet Cardinal Cahal Daly, all through that decade, preached against violence and intimidation ceaselessly, and following his leadership, the McConvilles should not have felt abandoned. I am glad things have changed for them now.