Many people believe in an ethical or moral concepts of parenthood. These include:

1. Parents should be a male and female who are married to each other
2. Children should be conceived only with the sperm and eggs of the husband and wife
3. The wife should carry the pregnancy and deliver the baby

Intrauterine insemination (IUI) is a commonly used treatment in infertility. With IUI, the male collects a semen sample into a sterile cup. The semen is prepared in the laboratory to separate the sperm from the seminal fluid. The sperm is concentrated into a small volume and loaded into a tiny plastic catheter. The catheter is inserted into the uterus of the woman and the sperm are injected inside the uterus.

At first glance, this would seem to be a morally sound practice since it meets all the criteria for moral parenthood that we discussed above. However, some people still have ethical issues with the use of IUI. The three main “complaints” regarding insemination with your husband’s sperm are:

1. Masturbation for sperm collection
2. The separation of sex and procreation
3. The commodification of reprodcution

The majority of the time, semen is collected by the male through masturbation. Some people object to the use of masturbation for various reasons. These people will state that masturbation is often accompanied by lust which is often cited as being morally wrong. They believe that lust is morally wrong because it is an expression of original sin.

If a couple does have an ethical problem with masturbation, sperm can also be collected at times with a special non-toxic condom that is used during intercourse.

The separation of intercourse from procreation

The current Catholic view is that anything other that “conjugal union” is a violation of the natural order. This has been the Church view since 1968 when, under Pope Paul VI, the Vatican produced a document called “Humanae Vitae”. In this document, it is stated that “ it is never permitted to separate these different aspects to such a degree to either exclude the procreative intention or the conjugal relation.”

This view argues that sex is an act of love and procreation at the same time and that the separation of the sexual (unitive) act and the procreative act is immoral. Since intrauterine insemination separates the sex from the procreation, it is therefore considered immoral.

This has not always been the view of the Catholic church. For 1500 years, Christian theology accepted the views of St. Augustine.

In St. Augustine’s view, the sex act was evil, literally a sin. He wrote that even the desire for sex was evil since “Original Sin” expressed itself through lust.

In his view, St Augustine further argued that marriage is the only context in which sex is allowed and then only for the purpose of having children. Once a marriage had produced children, the license was revoked and sex was no longer allowed.

A contradiction?

There is an interesting contradiction here. Before 1968, the view was that sex was evil and should be avoided at all costs. Since 1968, the view is that a treatment such as intrauterine insemination is wrong because no sex is involved.

Commodification

Commodification is literally, the making of something into a commodity that can be bought and sold. Prostitution is considered by some to be immoral since it makes the sex act into a commodity that can be bought and sold.

Some ethicists fear that if sex and procreation are able to be separated by the use of even a simple technique such as intrauterine insemination, then this will lead to the commodification of reproduction. The individual components of reproduction: sperm, eggs and a uterus will become individual commodities to be bought and sold.

Currently, men are “compensated” for “donating” sperm to sperm banks. Women are likewise compensated for donating their eggs and surrogates are compensated for the use of their uterus to gestate a baby for another couple.

Some will ask, What is the harm in selling eggs or sperm?” The answer that some ethicists give is that if promotes the evaluation of the end product “the child” as a commodity also. Of course, if children are “bought” and “sold” it is then akin to slavery which is morally wrong. The process will promote the “dehumanization” of some people whose sperm or eggs do not have desirable characteristics as “products”. Stated simply, the buyers of products are going to assign more worth and pay more money for products that meet certain standards.

Conclusion

There are some groups who believe that even simple assisted reproduction technologies such as intrauterine insemination with the sperm of a woman’s husband can be ethically wrong from either a religious perspective or a societal perspective.

There is a fear that once these techniques get a foothold, there is a slippery slope toward concepts that many would feel are ethically unacceptable. This is not to say that these things “will” happen, only that they might be more likely in the situation where the treatments are allowed.