A Question Mark Hangs Over Their Heads (problems faced by IVF children)

Catholic Exchange ^ | May 17, 2011 | Fr. Tadeusz Pacholczyk

[trisham]

Children are a gift, not an entitlement. The Church teaches that marriage does not confer upon the spouses the right to have a child, but only the right to perform those natural acts which are per se ordered to procreation. A true and proper right to a child would be contrary to the child’s dignity and nature. The child is not an object to which one has a right, nor can he be considered as an object of ownership: rather, a child is a gift, "the supreme gift" (58) and the most gratuitous gift of marriage, and is a living testimony of the mutual giving of his parents. For this reason, the child has the right, as already mentioned, to be the fruit of the specific act of the conjugal love of his parents; and he also has the right to be respected as a person from the moment of his conception. (Instruction on Respect for Human Life 8)

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Beautiful.

[JoeFromSidney]

It's interesting that children conceived through "donor" sperm, even in an intact mother-father family, somehow recognize that they "don't belong," even though they're not told of the circumstances of their origin. There's a lot more to "fitting in" to a family than it appears on the surface.