Archdiocese denounces artificial insemination for homosexuals

Buenos Aires, Argentina, Aug 2, 2005 / 22:00 pm

The controversial case of an Argentinean lesbian couple attempting to undergo artificial insemination in order to have a child has led the Archdiocese of Cordoba to make a public statement on the nature of motherhood.

In an interview with the Argentinean daily La Mañana, the spokesman for the archdiocese, Father Pedro Torres, recalled that “motherhood is not a right,” since “one cannot consider a child as a possession or a thing.”

“The natural environment in which children are born is marriage.  Insemination as a scientific intervention cannot be a substitute for sexuality in marriage,” he explained, adding that “medicine exists in order to provide solutions, but not for replacing or manipulating that which is natural.”

Father Torres also said the issues of “a minority” should not be used to hide other “true” problems, such as the needs of the poor or security issues.

“Not everything that is technically or scientifically possible is ethically acceptable,” he noted.  “The ethical limits of science need to be discerned; it should not be used simply to satisfy whims.”

Although there is a legal vacuum in Argentina with regards to artificial insemination among homosexuals, Father Torres recalled that “procreation is participation in the creative work of God, with responsibilities and conditions. A child ought to have a father, a mother and a place of love.”