Covenant and Creation: Theological Reflections on Contraception and Abortion
Report of Study from the Advisory Council on Church and Society.
1983
The 195th General Assembly received the reports and adopted the policy statements and recommendations.
“5. Advances in the enhancement and control of fertility have created many new options for families. The 195th General Assembly (1983), while recognizing that all human undertaking is open to abuse, affirms these advancements. To parent or not to parent is a decision of utmost concern, with clear implications beyond individuals and families to the community, society, and even the species.
While the option of bearing children should be available as universally as possible, to bear a child should not be undertaken without clear intentionality. The choice should not be determined for voiceless minorities or disenfranchised groups, including the physically disabled and the mentally retarded. Within this area of concern, the 195th General Assembly (1983):
a. Urges compassion and sensitivity for those who face fertility or conceptive problems; and
(1) Affirms the use of drug and surgical therapies to overcome anovulation, hormonal disorders, and other problems that lead to infertility;
(2) Affirms the use of artificial insemination by husband as a responsible means of overcoming certain fertility problems;
(3) Affirms in vitro fertilization as a responsible alternative for couples for whom there is no other way to bear children.
b. Urges couples who cannot conceive to consider adoption as an alternative to childlessness, even if available children are beyond infancy or handicapped; and condemns efforts to procure infants for adoption through illegal means.
c. Urges that the high standards of the initial in vitro fertilization programs be maintained as the procedure becomes more widely available; and
(1) Opposes state or local legislation that would prohibit in vitro fertilization and urges church advocacy against such legislation where it exists (Illinois) or maybe proposed;
(2) Discourages development of human embryos and their use for experimentation except in those cases of clearly demonstrable benefit where no other substitute could accomplish the same end;
(3) Opposes legislation that, while attempting to curtail abuse, would serve to prohibit amniocentesis and beneficial fetal therapy.”
d. Urges that informed consent he [sic] required from all participants in contraceptive and fertility drug experimentation and states emphatically that racial-ethnic, poor, and Third World women should not be used as guinea pigs for drugs deemed too risky for testing in affluent United States communities.
e. Urges further study on the psychological, ethical, and legal ramifications of surrogate motherhood and anonymous artificial insemination donors for all parties, including the child.