Clergy Study Day: Sorting Through Some Bioethical Hot Button Issues: In Vitro Fertilization, Transgenderism, and Transhumanism

Father Tad will discuss how we can pastorally approach infertility by melding an approach that shares the truth of Christ regarding our sexuality and fertility, while accompanying individuals facing this difficult situation in their marriage. He will offer some practical suggestions about accompaniment, asking questions, listening and being present to couples facing infertility. He will discuss diocesan or parish support groups, as well as the importance of raising the spiritual questions, and assisting couples to grapple with the way that the Lord is speaking to us through the cross of infertility. He will also discuss what the key criterion is in order for a fertility intervention to be considered morally OK. The importance of pursuing alternatives to in vitro fertilization, such as Fertility Education and Medical Management (FEMM) and  NaProTechnology will be discussed, as well as the hard cases of “irresolvable infertility.”

In a second talk, he will discuss the various concerns surrounding the claim that gender can or should be entirely divorced from biological sex, and will evaluate some of the common claims offered by transgender advocates claiming that a person can be “born in the wrong body.” He will discuss the rapidly shifting culture, including governmental intrusions and the effects on schools when transgender students insist on accessing opposite sex facilities such as locker rooms, bathrooms and spas, as well as the problems with allowing biological males to compete in female-designated sporting events. Pastorally, he will conclude with a discussion of what we can do as Catholics, such as affirming the person in Christ, but not all their choices, and charitably challenging false assumptions about truth and reality.

 

In a third talk, Father Tad will look at the emerging transhumanism movement, covering a range of topics from anti-aging initiatives to nanotechnology to renewing organs and tissues through stem cells, cloning and human/animal hybrids. He will evaluate the core project of transhumanism that seeks to surpass human nature as we know it, and bring it to a “post-human” state, effecting an evolution of the human race by means of science and technology towards a superior species. He will evaluate the proposals by transhumanists to incorporate persons into the “technosphere” and redesign the human organism via genetic engineering, cyborgization, and brain computer interfaces. He will offer a critique of transhumanists and their problematic views about human nature and outline how transhumanism can turn into a rebellion against all limits, with medical technology as the battlefield of the rebellion. He will conclude by looking at how technological improvements to man are not the same thing as moral improvements, and emphasize how Christ’s life provides us a much-needed road map to transcendence in place of transhumanism.