By Matthew McKenna, Catholic Exchange, Oct. 15, 2025
Matthew McKenna is a Ph.D candidate in Theology at Ave Maria University. He studies and teaches on the works of St. Thomas Aquinas, G.K. Chesterton, and J.R.R. Tolkien. His dissertation-in-progress explains the link between the masculine genius and the priesthood.
Recently, one couple shared their story about discerning the morality of embryo adoption and their final decision to go through with it because they are otherwise infertile. A significant portion of the article centers around the moral reasoning through which they determined that it was an acceptable choice. Sadly, and despite their best efforts to find moral guidance, there are serious issues with their reasoning and interpretation of Magisterial teachings which have led them, and may lead others, astray.
First, they do note that the Church has advised against embryo adoption, especially in the CDF’s document Dignitas Personae, section nineteen. They reference Dr. Jeffrey Mirus’s interpretation of this paragraph to claim that this document, “stops short of declaring embryo adoption sinful.” This should strike any reader familiar with Dignitas Personae paragraph nineteen as quite odd, since this section concludes with the dramatic statement that there seems to be no just solution to the issue of frozen embryos: “All things considered, it needs to be recognized that the thousands of abandoned embryos represent a situation of injustice which in fact cannot be resolved” (emphasis original). ….
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