Students at Loyola Law School have drawn criticism over writing a legal
brief in support of Costa Rica legalizing in-vitro fertilization, a
practice condemned by the Church.
The L.A.-based Catholic school issued a statement on its decision to
submit the brief, saying it is “committed to the academic freedom of
faculty members and students to participate in the study of different
perspectives.”
But Dr. Anthony Lilles, professor of spiritual theology at St. John
Vianney Seminary in Denver, Colo., countered that a Catholic
understanding of academic freedom means that it should be guided by
truth as revealed in scripture and tradition, and as taught by the
Magisterium of the Church.
“Academic freedom means the freedom to pursue the truth, wherever it might take you,” he said in an interview with CNA Oct. 1.
Loyola Law School is a branch of Loyola Marymount University in Los
Angeles, which describes itself as a “Catholic institution.”
The legal brief, submitted Sept. 3, concerns a case before the
Inter-American Court on Human Rights, in which Costa Rican couples
wishing to use in-vitro fertilization are suing the country for
prohibiting the practice. The brief is called an “amicus curiae,” or
“friend of the court.”
The document was prepared by students in the International Human Rights Clinic, and supervised by Professor Cesare Romano.
Loyola Law School is not representing either side in the case, and by
releasing the brief “merely seeks to advise the court on a matter that
relates to the litigation,” the school's statement reported.
The brief is written solely on legal grounds and does not address the
moral implications of IVF, which almost invariably results in the
destruction of human embryos.
Students at the Catholic law school encouraged the court to “steer
clear of the debate about when life begins and what the legal status of
human embryos is.”
Rather than deciding the case based on the rights of embryos, the brief
indicated that the the decision should be grounded in “the rights of
infertile women and men.”
Although the brief said that the issue of when life begins “remains
better left to the will of States and their practice,” it overlooked
Costa Rica's move to not to legalize in-vitro when a bill permitting the
practice failed in its legislature.
In 1987, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith released “Donum
vitae,” an instruction on the dignity of human procreation. In-vitro
fertilization was found to be “morally illicit” because it “establishes
the domination of technology over the origin and destiny of the human
person.”
“Such a relationship of domination is in itself contrary to the dignity
and equality that must be common to parents and children,” the
congregation said.
Loyola Law School's statement explaining the brief said that their
vision of academic freedom is “in harmony with the Law School’s
institutional Catholic identity and Ignatian heritage.”
Dr. Lilles responded, however, that “Catholic universities need to be
instruments of the truth.” He concluded by saying that “hopefully the
faculty there will continue to work with those students so they can make
better moral judgments.”