Review of Human Embryo Adoption, Volume 2, eds. Trent Horn and Kent Lasnoski (Broomall 2025)

Human Embryo Adoption Volume 2 discusses the issue of human embryo adoption in three parts. Part one provides the scientific and ethical context. Part two presents objections to embryo adoption, while part three defends this practice. The challenging nature of this topic and the specialized vocabulary make this appropriate for university students, health professionals, ethicists, and theologians. The purpose of the book is to bring together a variety of experts who take differing positions and perspectives on this most nuanced and ethically challenging topic. Readers will come away with the sense that there are numerous weighty ethical dimensions to the practice of human embryo adoption (HEA).

HEA refers to the medical procedure whereby an embryo, normally thawed from the frozen state into which it was put at the time of the IVF procedure, is introduced into a woman’s womb in order to be carried to term. The IVF procedure typically produces many more embryos than are required at the time. Two aspects of HEA are presented: homologous, when the embryo is that of the woman and, presumably, her husband, and heterologous, when the embryo comes from individuals outside of the marriage.

Part one’s presentation of the background includes chapters on the medical procedure, social and personal experiences of embryo adoption, and the magisterium’s teachings. The authors of these chapters define many of the terms which may be unfamiliar to the non-specialist, such as dichorionic twins (the condition of “each twin having his or her own placenta”), and potentially confusing terms (embryo adoption versus embryo donation) (pages 12 and 4 respectively). The three chapters that provide the context helpfully include ample discussion of recent medical developments. The various writers build their arguments by citing authorities, the most cited being St. Thomas Aquinas, Popes John Paul II and Francis, and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (Donum vitae, Dignitatis personae).

Each contributor in the book adds something unique to the debate. Jeffrey Kennan, for example, identifies two important issues, the failure of couples to formulate a plan for the unused embryos and their failure to fully inform themselves of the procedure. (19) This implies the significant issue of prevention, perhaps an overlooked aspect of the problem by many stakeholders such as the potential parents and the medical personnel. In his chapter, “Prenatal Adoption and the magisterium,” Jimmy Akin helpfully defines some of the important medical procedures (Without Embryo Transfer, Crisis Embryo Transfer, Voluntary Embryo Transfer, and With Extrauterine Gestation) and the background to the practice of adoption in ancient Rome and in the Old and New Testaments. Akin notes the ambiguity of Dignitatis personae, certain statements by John Paul II, and the US Conference of Catholic Bishops. (43-47)

The next two parts address HEA from a variety of perspectives, which demonstrates the complexity of the ethical issues. The seven chapters of part two focus on the themes of children’s rights, parenthood, the female acceptance of an embryo, and the tragedy of the uncertain status of over a million frozen embryos and their inherent dignity. From the perspective of opposition to human embryo adoption, Fr. Austriaco in his chapter sums up where the debate among Catholic ethicists stands at the moment. He calls it “a genuine impasse awaiting resolution from the magisterium of the Catholic Church, because both sides have reached a point where there is a fundamental disagreement over whether the act of becoming pregnant … is reserved to the marital covenant,” an impasse which, he argues, can only be resolved by Rome. (54) His words imply the ambiguity of the magisterium until now on this issue, a shortcoming that other authors in this volume also mention. Fr. Austriaco bases his opposition to human embryo adoption on the foundational ethical issue of the inseparability principle, which asserts that the making of a baby cannot be separated from the marital sex act; the former is as much reserved for marriage as the latter. (55–56) Sex, babymaking, and pregnancy are “distinct moments of a single movement” of the teleology of marriage. (57)

Charles Robertson adds to this by pointing out that human embryo adoption leaves the father out of the equation, a condition which contrasts sharply with the mother’s intimate involvement. (83) This results in the alienation of the father from his wife and the child. The violation of the CDF’s assertion that “a husband and wife should become a father and mother only through each other” puts both spouses into morally untenable positions. Equally troublesome, the mother is turned into an object. (83) Robertson supports the ideas in his paper, “Embryo Adoption and Becoming a Parent,” by discussing the natural law based on Thomas Aquinas’s teaching on adoption and by referring to a range arguments of the various sides in the debate, which gives readers a very solid background to the debate.

Many of the experts of this volume succeed in providing a larger perspective or background to provide a fuller picture for readers, including in part 2. In “Children’s Rights to Love and Life,” Christopher Bobier discusses the nature of adoption, and why it is good. Adoptive parents are as fully parents as parents of naturally-born children. Bobier also brings up the salient issue that death, in particular the death of the unadopted embryo, is not the worst thing that can happen to a person because of God’s promise of salvation. The Church does not teach that unbaptized children, including embryos, cannot be saved, nor that they are restricted to limbo. Those children are entrusted to the grace and love of God. Therefore, it is not convincing that embryos need to be adopted in order to give them life. The high number of already-born children waiting for adoption makes it preferable for willing couples to adopt them instead of adopting human embryos, whom we need to entrust to God’s mercy. Bobier’s challenge to our common fears about death and the possible limbo status of the unbaptized provides an interesting dimension to the debate.

After discussing Mary’s fiat at the Annunciation, Mary Gormally reserves harsh words for human embryo adoption. She expresses her concern for the humanity of everyone involved in the procedure: “Even if the impregnator, the one inserting the embryo, happens to be her husband, the woman’s letting him impregnate her in this way would not be unitive as a marriage act is unitive. This fact brings out the chilling impersonality of what she is allowing.” (106) The other authors in this book share this concern over the humanity of the stakeholders. They are mindful that technology can quickly reduce everything to procedure and technique. For these scholars, the unitive marital act is inseparable from babymaking.

Gormally notes that our technical and scientific know-how does not change the age-old wisdom that links the marital act with the creation of human life. She challenges the argument that human embryo adoption is an act of love on the part of the parents, and argues that, instead, it exploits the woman. She places tremendous importance and esteem on the marital act. The core of her argument is that “when a woman who adopts an embryo admits an intromission which is of a kind to impregnate her, she does not do anything which has either unitive or procreative significance but does something which does imitate the marriage act in respect of admitting an intromission of impregnating kind.” (111) This means that the act of inserting the embryo is by its nature a sexual act on the part of the woman, because when a woman submits to the sex act with a man, pregnancy is possible and part of the reality of sex for her.

In his contribution through the interesting and accessible form of Scholastic disputatio, Kent Lasnoski articulates the basic stance of the authors of part two: “The sexual faculties, therefore, may never be properly used if they are instrumentalized toward any particular end, whether procreation or union alone. They may be used to consummate a marriage, an act which carries a procreative and unitive meaning.” (122) Fr. Tad Pacholczyk reiterates this in the next chapter by declaring embryo implantation as intrinsically evil because it instrumentalizes and misuses “the goods of marriage.” (128) Pacholczyk insightfully notes in his well-rounded article that violating the exclusivity of marriage is an attack on motherhood and fatherhood. He also makes the crucial point that the production of embryos extracorporally objectifies the person who is created, and that it leads to the absurd situation wherein these persons exist in a frozen state, without the opportunity of becoming fully human.

The consistency of the various chapters of part 2 help draw the reader’s attention to the fact of higher moral, spiritual, and psychological issues at play in embryo adoption than the ethics of simply saving these embryos. The issue strikes at the heart of who we are as humans, Christians, spouses, and parents. Irene Alexander, for instance, notes that “the real tragedy” of thawing frozen embryos so to allow them to die instead of staying in the “intrinsically evil” (169) frozen state is that the entire situation could have been prevented, but that the decision was taken by the couples and medical technicians to separate procreation from sex, even with the deaths of so many frozen embryos along the way. (165)

The proponents of the other side of the issue are no less sensitive and nuanced. The seven chapters of part three that defend the practice of human embryo adoption address the dignity of the child, the spiritual and social aspects of adoption, and the merciful nature of embryo adoption. Like part two, part three ends with a view to the future.

Christopher Tollefsen examines three forms of the extended inseparability argument, those of Mary Geach, Thomism, and personalism, and responds to each. Like most other writers in this selection from either side, he addresses what he sees as confusion in many opposing points. He also makes the key point that the debate over HEA is unusual because it is intra-Catholic rather than between Catholics and non-Catholics, which means that both sides are committed to the Church’s teachings on sexuality. (193)

Even the scholars who support human embryo adoption find ethical flaws in key aspects of the process. Melissa Moschella sees in the making of embryos and IVF a domineering attitude towards the life that is created, an attitude that is akin to that of a master to a slave. The parents define the embryo in terms of their own needs, making it into a product that serves their own purposes instead of having its own value. (205) Moschella upholds the inseparability norm and argues that IVF violates the dignity of the child. As with other chapters, readers will come away with a sharper perspective of the moral issues at play, including with her reference to magisterium teachings on the immoral nature of allowing technology to have so much power over the creation of life. Even though Moschella argues that human embryo adoption does not violate the dignity of life, she shows how IVF leaves in its wake so much evil.

The range of views and approaches in this volume help us see the profound complexity of this issue. Francis Etheredge discusses human embryo adoption from the perspective of the Anunciation. He observes that “what is of concern here is the divine-human act of each child’s coming to exist entailing a relationship to the Blessed Trinity.” (247) What this means, Etheredge argues, is that “each human embryo, however conceived, is conceived in relationship to the creative-redeeming love of the Blessed Trinity.” (247) We are thus called to love one another and follow the natural law in doing good and avoiding evil. This calling directly informs how we need to approach human embryo adoption. Etheredge’s questions and insights are perhaps the most challenging and insightful among a very challenging and insightful group of experts. His skill at weaving Scriptural passages with this demanding ethical issue that is in some ways so far removed from the culture and concerns of the century in which the Anunciation took place reveals how this issue evokes very deep theological and ontological concerns that get to the very roots of who we are as Christians.

The various authors of part three connect the issue of human embryo adoption to familiar points of Catholic ethics and theology. They demonstrate that even though this type of adoption is a new thing, traditional Catholic thinking can be applied to it. Elizabeth Bothamley Rex discusses embryo adoption from the viewpoint of Pope John Paul II’s Theology of the Body and other documents of the magisterium, including Humanae vitae, from the view of “the Church’s unchangeable doctrine on the dignity of the human person.” (278) She argues that this doctrine “makes clear that the responsibility to protect frozen embryos from harm and death is not just a secondary concern but rather a moral imperative,” and warns that indefinite cryopreservation could be the sin of abortion. (278) She therefore deems embryo adoption to be a moral necessity.

Janet Smith in her chapter regards embryo adoption to be an act of mercy. Like Bothamley Rex she addresses the issue of abortion, though from a different perspective, as she makes the interesting suggestion that alternative methods of gestation of embryos, such as artificial wombs, could lower the number of abortions. Like the other authors, Smith not only evokes the various elements of Catholic ethics and theology, but also contrasts these with the mentality of the surrounding culture, “which holds human life to be of such little value.” (308) She provides readers with a glimpse of this secular, consumerist culture when she notes that frozen embryos are often shipped across the country to adoptive couples, as if these unborn humans are simply products. These many writers are keenly aware of the mentality that has led to so many frozen embryos that objectivizes these humans and treats them as products.

The last chapter, by Christopher M. Reilly, looks to the future by glancing back to the apostles in the empty upstairs room. He calls for the Church to bring clarity to “the moral status of embryo adoption” (314) and examines practical issues such as medical clinics, policies on the obtaining and transfer of embryos, other legal issues, and the adoptive process, including counselling. After so much theology and ethical theory, this practicality is much-needed (and perhaps missing from other chapters). At the end of the chapter, Reilly reminds us that Christian hope “is founded in the revelation, teaching, and loving relationship of Christ, who, with the Holy Spirit, brings us to our fulfillment in the virtue of charity.” (330) This is an important way to end this weighty book, as hope is the only answer to the unfortunate condition of so many little lives.

What strengthens the arguments of many of the authors is their reference to other scholars, particularly those with whom they disagree. This clarifies the justifications for their own positions. This refinement of positions sometimes challenges readers to see things from a fresh perspective and to realize that their viewpoint was too narrow or needed to be altered. John Berkman does just this when he writes that “any prospective adoptive parent who understands her relationship to her child as one of charity will be necessarily problematic over the long term. More significantly, adoptive children should be received by Christians as all children should be received, that is, as gifts from God.” (227)

Does the book achieve what it set out to achieve? Human Embryo Adoption does not leave the reader with a clear and certain solution and path to follow on this difficult and complex issue. Yet the editors never set out to definitively answer the questions regarding human embryo adoption. At first glance, this may seem like a relativist approach, but it is far from this because the various authors set out to establish basic moral guidelines that are themselves rooted in the natural law, the teachings of the magisterium, and Scripture. They succeed at this. What is lacking is a greater discussion of and reference to Thomism and natural law. Perhaps a concluding chapter devoted to these two topics would have nicely wrapped up this volume.

Ultimately, proponents and opponents of HEA agree on the complexity of the issue and the fact that until now the magisterium has not spoken definitively on the issue. Readers may not come away with a clear position on HEA, but they will come away with a clear understanding of how professional Catholic ethicists debate, research, and address very knotty and very tragic issues.