Peter Colosi

8/6/2019 Peter Colosi

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Theology of the Body and Dignitas Personae: Reflections on Christian

Anthropology as the Foundation of the Culture of Life: Transforming the

Culture of Death from the Roots up

Introduction

Explanation of why certain things are wrong in the bioethics field. Dignitas personae and

Donum vitae deal with biology in quite detailed ways with techniques that scientists use.The Church always says that she is in favour of science and technology. But two ways inwhich it can be used. One way makes it more human; one makes it less human though.

With respect to conjugal relations the Church makes a distinction between bio-

technological ways between in which science can help and when it distorts techniques e.g. Naprotechnology assisting conjugal relations.

IVF: involves obtaining sperm from a man usually via masturbation and eggs throughhyper-ovulating woman. A technician puts them together in a laboratory. At blastocyststage it is implanted in woman.

Church sees this procedure as immoral. Many have asked whether IVF might be morally

good in some cases and not in others. What about infertile couple who want to have a baby but cannot? Maybe in that case it is morally acceptable. That too is immoral.

Certainly, homologous IVF and ET fertilization is not marked by all that

ethical negativity found in extra-conjugal procreation; the family andmarriage continue to constitute the setting for the birth and upbringing

of the children. Nevertheless, in conformity with the traditionaldoctrine relating to the goods of marriage and the dignity of the person,the Church remain opposed from the moral point of view to

homologous 'in vitro' fertilization. Such fertilization is in itself illicit andin opposition to the dignity of procreation and of the conjugal union,even when everything is done to avoid the death of the human embryo.

Donum vitae , II, B, 5

The fertility industry is an industry, hand in glove with the pill! Women take the Pill foryears, then they go to IVF. In every case of IVF embryos are killed. In Italy you can’t create

more embryos than will be implanted. Not in USA or UK though. 400,000 frozen embryosin USA.

IVF is wrong because it always involves aborting children.

This disturbs the mind of the parents because the desire for a child causes them to kill

another child. Dv recognises this.

The approach to other people in making them shifts from idea of gift to idea of product.

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The Church uses language such as “every human being has the right to be conceived because of a specific conjugal act because of the love between his parents”.

Behind every “no” in the difficult task of discerning between good and

evil, there shines a great “yes” to the recognition of the dignity and

inalienable value of every single and unique human being called intoexistence.

Dignitas personae , 36

At the end of Dv , it says:

The precise indications which are offered in the present Instructiontherefore are not meant to halt the effort of reflection but rather to give

it a renewed impulse in unrenounceable fidelity to the teaching of the

Church.

Donum vitae , Conclusion

If there are so many lists given by Church of things you can’t do, why this quote?

[T]he Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith addresses an invitationwith confidence and encouragement to theologians, and above all tomoralists, that they study more deeply and make eves more accessible

to the faithful the contents of the teaching of the Church's Magisteriumin the light of a valid anthropology in the matter of sexuality andmarriage and in the context of the necessary interdisciplinary approach.

Thus they will make it possible to understand ever more clearly thereasons for and the validity of this teaching.

Donum vitae , Conclusion

The very first line talks about Synod of Bishops about to take place in 1980. Fruit of thatwas Fc.

TOB 1.5 shows the deep roots from which this topic springs:

During the following Wednesday reflections at the general audiences,we will try, as Christ's interlocutors today, to dwell at greater length on

St. Matthew’s words (19:3ff.). To respond to the indication, inserted inthem by Christ, we will try to penetrate toward that “beginning”, towhich he referred in such a significant way. Thus we will follow from adistance the great work which participants in the forthcoming Synod of

Bishops are undertaking on this subject just now. Together with them,numerous groups of pastors and laymen are taking part in it, feelingespecially responsible with regard to the role which Christ assigned to

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marriage and the Christian family, the role that he has always given,and still gives in our age, in the modern world.

The cycle of reflections we are beginning today, with the intention of

continuing it during the following Wednesday meetings, also has the

purpose, among other things, of accompanying from afar, so to speak,the work of preparation for the Synod. However, it will not touch itssubject directly, but will turn our attention to the deep roots from which

this subject springs.

Wednesday Audience, 5th September 1979

Inner core of the family is love between the spouses. Those are the roots behind TOB so wecan follow the synod.

Deepening the topic

The gift of life which God the Creator and Father has entrusted to mancalls him to appreciate the inestimable value of what he has been givenand to take responsibility for it

Donum vitae , 1

The dignity of a person must be recognized in every human being fromconception to natural death.

Dignitas Personae , 1

Both therefore say that every human being is to be respected from conception to natural

death etc. Typically, we can keep that meaning intact. To respect an embryo from themoment of conception also in addition to respecting its life also concerns the way in whichthe embryo is created.

Distinction

We have to distinguish between origin and relationships of a person.

The Origin of Someone - how a person came into existence: what exactly the act and thedecisions were that caused a person to be.

The Relationship of Someone: the relationships that person has after they come into beingwith those / the people who brought them into being. The relationship is formed by theorigin.

(Both of these are Colosi’s own definitions.)

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The acts and decisions that are used for bringing someone into being have an effect on therelationship with the people who made those acts and decisions.

Although every person is meant to come into existence because of a specific way of loving

embrace, there are many ways in which people come into being. Rape, fornication, acts

within marriage, cloning, IVF etc.

There are people who come into being in these other ways: yet they still have the fulldignity of the human person from the moment of conception. God loves them into being.

Every child that comes into the world must be accepted as a living gift of the divinegoodness.

Man has unassailable value he possesses an eternal vocation. This value belongs to all

without distinction.

The women in the genealogy of Jesus not exactly married people. Ruth, Rahab, Tamar,Bathsheba. Incest, rape, harlotry, provocativeness. They are in Jesus’s genealogy! God canredeem everything!

This does not mean that the actions in which these people were involced are not immoral.We should repent of immoral actions and stop doing them. Without diminishing the worth

of any one of them that comes into being. The reason for that wrongness is not because theperson created has less worth.

The origin of a person has an unavoidable influence on a person’s relationshipssubsequently.

There’s an adjustment made depending on the creator’s choices in their creation. The way

someone relates.

That is intuitively sensible. What about people married to each other in IVF?

Sperm donation

Before we get there, focus on sperm donation.

“My Daddy’s name is donor.” Read this.

Quote 11. From donor child.

They have an existential angst because of the thought that a small amount of moneyexchanged hands and an impersonal act of masturbation happened.

Donor children want to find their parents.

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Rights of a child are shown to be violated. eg Mother who decides for the child that hewould not have a father, and this without asking him.

IVF and two parents married

In the body and through the body one touches the person himself in his

concrete reality.

Donum vitae , Introduction

We are our bodies. So you don’t slap someone you don’t like and say I respect you as aperson!

Let’s think about bodily touching:

One is the loving bodily touching of husband and wife in conjugal relations. Then the

sperm and the egg meet in the body of the mother.

In IVF, the forms of bodily touching are masturbation, egg retrieval, anonymous technicianputting them together and then putting them in woman’s body. Some intuitive sense thatconceptus is being touched in these ways or these ways.

One more point to make intuitive sense of why IVF is wrong even when parents areproviders of gametes:

Quote 14: Man becomes a product... Benedict is saying that a total alteration of ourunderstanding from seeing others as a gift versus a product whom you made.

Conclusion

Mother Teresa: family is basic building-block of society. Quote 19. World peace depends on

whether there is love in families.

However, the family remains vulnerable and can easily fall prey todangers which weaken it or actually destroy its unity and stability. As a

result of these dangers families cease to be witnesses of the civilizationof love and can even become a negation of it, a kind of counter-sign. A

broken family can, for its part, consolidate a specific form of “anti-civilization”, destroying love in its various expressions, with inevitableconsequences for the whole of life in society.

John Paul II, Letter to Families, 13

Mother Teresa shows what happens.

Questions on: Difference between object and intention NFP question about whether it’s contraception

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The object is not contraception. It’s a different moral issue (of the intention) in the case of NFP couples with a contraceptive mentality.

Two elements of a moral act to consider. The object and the intention. eg If I give alms it’s

good in itself. But if I give alms with the view to looking good that’s bad.

There are other acts which by their object they are wrong. The intention does not make itgood. eg Abortion.

In contraception there is a bad object chosen which is not there in NFP. In NFP you are

open. It is objectively good.

Question about gay couples wanting kids

Always bring the question whether the best thing for children to have a mother and a

father that love each other. They can’t deny it.

Genealogy of Jesus issue. What happens in a broken relationship to fix it? Reconciliation.Something like an apology by the creators for the violation of a donor child’s rights might

bring about healing. Not an apology for their being but for the acts that brought them into being.

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Peter Colosi