Denver Catholic

OPINION I 5 DENVER CATHOLIC REGISTER I SEPTEMBER 10, 2014 BY ABBY JOHNSON The following is adapted from a Sept. 1 blog post by Ab- by Johnson about the 2013 doc- umentary "After Til- ler." The film, made in response to the 2009 murder of abortionist Dr. George Tiller, follows four U.S. doctors that openly per- form late-term abortions. It premiered on PBS Sept. 1, 2014. I have seen "After Tiller." It is very well done. The produc- ers did a great job of drawing you in quickly. It is, of course, sympathetic to the abortion movement. But honestly, if you aren't careful, you could totally forget about that part and find yourself struggling with mis- guided sympathy. So that's my first word of advice. If you watch this documen- tary, guard yourself. I don't dis- courage anyone from watch- ing it at all. I always think it's a good idea to listen to what our opposition is telling the public … and more importantly, what they are telling themselves. Re- searching and understanding the mindset of the pro-choice side is a very important part of being a prolife activist. The producers do a great job of turning these late term abortion providers into sym- pathetic heroes—heroes that risk their lives to perform these "life-saving medical proce- dures." They are threatened, hunted down, harassed … all because they perform a legal medical procedure. And there's the message that they want you to hear. You may read this and say, "Well, that's not going to hap- pen to me." We are usually moved to changes in our thinking by small messages that we hear over and over again. I was raised pro-life but was slow- ly changed into a pro-choice person because of those small messages I heard. The mes- sages were untrue, just like they are untrue in this docu- mentary. But a lie can easily be disguised as truth. Remember that these physicians abort ba- bies. They are not heroes. And on that note, here's my second word of advice. The reason this documentary was even able to be made was be- cause of the pro-life move- ment. Yes, you read that cor- rectly. You see, we give them the material. We do it when we, as pro-lifers, call abortion providers "baby killers" and "murderers." We do it when we use crazy, inflammatory language like "death chamber" and "slaughterhouse" when re- ferring to abortion facilities. We would do well to ask ourselves: "How are we per- ceived by our opposition?" Are we someone that an abor- tion-minded woman or an abortion worker would trust to help them? I am thankful every day that I had rational, kind pro-lifers to turn to in my crisis of conscience. It's important to ask our- selves: Are we pro-life because it makes us feel good? Are we pro-life because it's a box we can check off? Are we pro- life because we are all about being right and winning an argument? I hope not. I hope we are pro-life because we genuinely care about women, men, fam- ilies and babies. I hope we are pro-life because we believe that women deserve better than abortion. Being pro-life is not about being right. It's not about winning an argument. Win an argument, lose a soul. Remember that these abor- tionists are … sinners, just like you and me. And they are also redeemable. Let this be a reminder to pray for their con- version with increased fervor. If you don't believe that the abortionists featured in "After Tiller" can experience a con- version, then you don't know the same God I do. The God I serve is in the business of miracles. Pro-life advocate Abby Johnson, a former employee of Planned Parenthood, is a national speaker and author of best-selling book "Unplanned." Visit www.abbyjohnson.org. GUEST COLUMN After Tiller ABBY JOHNSON BY FATHER TADEUSZ PACHOLCZYK, PH.D. Artificial insemination in- troduces sperm into a wom- an's body by use of a thin tube (cannula) or other instrument to bring about a pregnancy. Ar- tificial insemination can be ei- ther homologous (using sperm from a woman's husband) or heterologous (using sperm from a man she is not married to). Both forms of artificial in- semination raise significant moral concerns. Bringing about a pregnan- cy by introducing a cannu- la through the reproductive tract of a woman and inject- ing sperm into her body raises concerns about reducing her to a kind of conduit for the purposes of obtaining a child. These actions fail to respect the most personal and intimate aspects of a woman's relation - al femininity and her sexuality. She ends up being treated or treating herself as an "object" for the pursuit of ulterior ends. A man also violates his sexuali- ty, as his involvement becomes reduced to "producing a sam- ple," usually by masturbation, which technicians then use in order to impregnate his wife or another woman. Similarly, any child conceived in this man- ner is potentially treated as an object or a "project to be real- ized," rather than as a gift aris- ing from their shared bodily intimacy and one-flesh union. Back in 1949, a pre- scient Pope Pius XII already recognized some of these mor- al concerns when he wrote: "To reduce the common life of a hus- band and wife and the conjugal act to a mere organic func- tion for the transmis- sion of seed would be but to convert the domestic hearth, the family sanctuary, into a bi- ological laboratory. Therefore … we expressly excluded artifi- cial insemination in marriage." The Catholic Church ad- dressed this matter again in greater detail in 1987 in an important document called "Donum Vitae" (On the Gift of Life), noting that whenever a technical means "facilitates the conjugal act or helps it to reach its natural objectives, it can be morally acceptable. If, on the other hand, the procedure were to replace the conjugal act, it is morally illicit (unacceptable). Artificial insemination as a substitute for the conjugal act is prohibited." Some Catholics have never- theless suggested that artificial insemination might occasionally be per- mitted in light of an- other passage from the same document which they interpret as allowing for an exception: "Homol- ogous artificial in- semination within marriage cannot be admitted except for those cases in which the technical means is not a substitute for the con- jugal act but serves to facilitate and to help so that the act at- tains its natural purpose." Interestingly, at the present time, there do not seem to be any real-world examples of insemination technologies that facilitate the conjugal act. Hence, while the statement above is true in a theoreti- cal way, in practice there do not appear to be any specific technical methods to which the statement would in fact apply, so the claim of some Catholics that an exception exists for homologous arti- ficial insemination does not appear to be correct. The core problem remains that even if sperm were collected without masturbation, the subsequent steps of introducing a sample into a woman's reproductive tract, through a cannula or other means, would invariably involve a substitution or re- placement of the conjugal act, which would not be morally acceptable. To procure sperm without masturbation, a couple could use a so-called "silastic sheath" during marital relations (a perforated condom without spermicide). This would al- low some of the sample to pass through, and some to be retained and collected, and would assure that each mari- tal act remained ordered and open to the possibility of trans- mitting the gift of life. Yet even when using a mor- ally-permissible sperm pro- curement technique, the sub- sequent mechanical injection or insemination step itself would raise serious moral con- cerns. Clearly, a marital act would not cause the pregnan- cy, but at best would cause gamete (sperm) collection. The pregnancy itself would be brought about by a new and different set of causes, where- by the mechanical actions of a technician would substitute for, and thus violate, the inti- mate and exclusive bond of the marital act. Homologous artificial in- semination, in the final analy- sis, does not facilitate the nat- ural act, but replaces it with another kind of act altogether, an act that violates the uni- ty of the spouses in marriage, and the right of the child to be conceived in the unique and sacred setting of the marital embrace. The beauty of the marital embrace and the noble de- sire for the gift of children can make it challenging for us to accept the cross of infertility and childlessness when it aris- es in marriage, even as it offers us an opportunity to embrace a deeper and unexpected plan of spiritual fruitfulness that the Lord and Creator of Life may be opening before us. Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, Ph.D., earned his doctorate in neuroscience from Yale and did post-doctoral work at Harvard. He is a priest of the diocese of Fall River, Mass., and serves as the director of education at The National Catholic Bioeth- ics Center in Philadelphia. See www.ncbcenter.org. MAKING SENSE OF BIOETHICS FATHER TADEUSZ PACHOLCZYK, PH.D. Is Artificial Insemination Wrong Even Among Married Couples? had to those in need. He also brought his skills as a doctor and teacher with him, which he would use to comfort their bodies and their souls. After feeding the slaves, St. Peter would give a brief catechesis and then baptize as many of them as possible. At his can- onization in 1888, the lowest estimate of the slaves whom he baptized was 300,000. St. Peter Claver loved his fellow man, and in doing so he loved God. Faced with the inhumane conditions and cruel treatment of the slaves, he responded with love. Giving in to hatred is easy, but what it does to our hearts is disastrous. Hatred is what fuels the distortion of religion and twists it into violence, as we saw on Sept. 11. We must ask God for the outpouring of his love and the grace to resist hatred with love for our fellow man. We must ask the Holy Spirit to help us to follow the command of Jesus, to "love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you" (Matt 5:44). Finally, we must ask for the grace to love as God loves, that the Father in his love will increase the virtue of charity in our own hearts. As we remember those who died on Sept. 11, let us also re- member that Jesus' death and resurrection makes triumph over death possible, it makes triumph over hatred possible. Let us trust in him to accom- plish the miracle of making our hearts like his heart. Aquila From Page 2

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