Provide a description and bioethical analysis of: Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis PGD, Surrogate motherhood, “Snowflake babies”, Artificial insemination.

Having a child is fundamental and intimate for many married couples. Procreation is a complex process both from a psychological perspective and from the standpoint of biochemical processes occurring in the human body. Sometimes there are difficulties in attempts to have a baby, which causes the couple to despair. The current level of science development offers some assistive methods for procreation. However, the questions of ethics and conformity with religious guidelines in the use of these methods arise. Despite many modern possibilities for procreation, most of them do not comply with the Catholic doctrines of marriage and human dignity. Here are some of these assistive techniques and their discussion:

• Pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) is a procedure conducted in a laboratory to reduce the risk of genetic disease transmission before in vitro fertilization (IVF). This procedure is a genetic intervention that contradicts natural selection and is carried out in combination with IVF, which is not ethical since it refuses the natural fertilization process. For these reasons, PGD is also considered unethical and should not be used by the married couple.
• Surrogate motherhood is a practice when another woman, not a wife, gives birth to a child for a couple, using artificial insemination (AI) or IVF. This procedure is unethical for several reasons: it contradicts the marriage agreement, violates the mother and child relationship, and slanders the dignity of women because of commercialization.
• “Snowflake babies” are children born after IVF where the embryo was previously frozen after donation or after not being used for another couple’s IVF. This procedure is unethical since embryos are already alive but cannot consent to freeze. Moreover, a small part of the embryos survives as they are damaged by freezing or defrosting.
• Artificial insemination (AI) is a procedure for delivering sperm directly to a woman’s uterus for fertilization. The process can be ethical if there are several conditions: a couple is married, sperm is collected ethically (not through masturbation, but, for example, in a special condom), and there is no risk to the embryo.