There are three fonts of morality: (1) intention, (2) moral object (3) circumstances. All three fonts must be good for any act to be moral. If any one or more fonts is bad, the act is objectively sinful. If the moral object is bad (evil), then the act is intrinsically evil and always immoral.

Surrogate motherhood is not intrinsically evil, but is gravely immoral as it is currently commonly practiced. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith does not use the term intrinsic evil, and the basis for the determination of immorality is in the third font, not the second font.

Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith: “Surrogate motherhood represents an objective failure to meet the obligations of maternal love, of conjugal fidelity and of responsible motherhood; it offends the dignity and the right of the child to be conceived, carried in the womb, brought into the world and brought up by his own parents; it sets up, to the detriment of families, a division between the physical, psychological and moral elements which constitute those families. By ‘surrogate mother’ the Instruction means:
a) the woman who carries in pregnancy an embryo implanted in her uterus and who is genetically a stranger to the embryo because it has been obtained through the union of the gametes of ‘donors’. She carries the pregnancy with a pledge to surrender the baby once it is born to the party who commissioned or made the agreement for the pregnancy.
b) the woman who carries in pregnancy an embryo to whose procreation she has contributed the donation of her own ovum, fertilized through insemination with the sperm of a man other than her husband. She carries the pregnancy with a pledge to surrender the child once it is born to the party who commissioned or made the agreement for the pregnancy.” [Cardinal Ratzinger, CDF, Donum Vitae, II. A. n. 3]

In answering the question as to whether or not surrogate motherhood is morally licit, the Congregation limits the definition of surrogate motherhood to specific circumstances; thus, the morality depends on the third font. The circumstances described are in fact the most common use of surrogate motherhood; certainly, in these circumstances, surrogate motherhood is gravely immoral. The parents have not only chosen to use artificial procreation, which is intrinsically evil, but also have chosen to harm the bond of maternal love, by raising the child in the womb of another woman, to harm conjugal fidelity by involving a human person outside of the marriage bond in the gestation of the child, to harm the child by depriving that child of being developed and raised with these elements of maternal love and marital fidelity. In these circumstances, surrogate motherhood is gravely immoral.

But while the Sacred Congregation has not been lax, in recent instructions, to condemn whatever is intrinsically evil with the explicit declaration that the act is intrinsically evil, there is no such determination in the above quoted document. Nor is it implied by the reason given for the immorality of surrogate motherhood that such an act is intrinsically evil. Instead, the reason and the very definition of surrogate motherhood are dependent on the circumstances.

However, one can easily present a different circumstance, which uses a broader definition of surrogate motherhood, and which not only shows that the second font is good, but that the first and third fonts may also be good.

Example: (1) A pregnant woman is in a vehicular accident, and as a result, she can no longer carry the prenatal. But the prenatal is not far enough advanced in development to be delivered. If medical technology would someday be able, with the willing assistance of another woman, the prenatal might be transferred into the other woman’s womb, and so be given life instead of death. In this example, the child was conceived by natural marital relations, and the use of another woman in raising the child in the womb is of necessity. The moral object of the act is the saving of the life of an innocent person; the act itself is the medical procedure that is morally direct in accomplishing this good object. So the second font is good. The circumstances are such that the good consequence of saving an innocent life outweighs the bad consequence that another woman must raise the child in the womb, for a brief time. The intention is only to save an innocent life. Thus, all three fonts are good and the act is moral.

(2) A man and woman unfortunately commit the sin of artificial procreation. The couple freeze and then abandon that embryo. The only means to bring that very young human person to life is by a medical procedure where the embryo is transferred to the womb of another woman, not the biological mother of the embryo. The act itself is a medical procedure with the moral object of allowing a human person to develop and be born. The moral object is good because it is a particular fulfillment of the commandment to love your neighbor. The intention is to give development and birth to a human person, and to avoid the eventual death that would result from many years of being frozen. The circumstances are such that the embryo cannot be transferred to the womb of the mother. Perhaps she has died, or is unwilling, or is too old for a reasonable chance of success. The bad consequence of being raised in the womb of another woman is outweighed by the circumstance that this is the only path to continued life for this person. Thus, all three fonts are good and the act is moral.

Therefore, surrogate motherhood is not intrinsically evil, and may be moral, with good intention and when the good consequences outweigh the bad.

by
Ronald L. Conte Jr.
Roman Catholic theologian and
translator of the Catholic Public Domain Version of the Bible.