LifeDate Fall 2024 – Hope and a Future
by Pastor Michael Salemink
Just because we could doesn’t mean we should.
Surrogate pregnancy is gaining popularity. The process promises to equalize access to childrearing. Couples experiencing infertility, same-sex and transgender couples, and even individuals can now raise their genetically related offspring when the natural processes do not work. Laboratory technology has captured the power to make life and give kids.
Of course, children always embody blessings from heaven. Even the desire for them comes from Almighty God. And He grieves infertility, as do His people, alongside everyone who suffers it. But surrogacy involves a lot of ethical concerns. It operates outside the Heavenly Father’s design for sexuality and procreation. It requires either adultery or in vitro fertilization, and thus endangers the physical survival and psychological welfare of the little ones. Its financial considerations and exchanges invite corruption of sacred relationships. It appears above all to prioritize adult preferences ahead of children’s benefit.
For these reasons, and motivated by the Gospel of Jesus Christ, Lutherans For Life’s Board of Directors offers the following position statement. Our life-affirming community prays it will guide and persuade consciences to proclaim and practice the sanctity of every human life so that all may receive what our Lord and Savior promises.
Surrogacy
WHEREAS, Children are a gift and privilege from God (Psalm 127:3, 5); and
WHEREAS, God bestows this gift through the one-flesh union of one man and one woman (Genesis 1:27-28, 2:18, 21-24), a mutual self-giving love reflective of the love within the Trinity (1 John 4:8) out of which He created and redeemed man (Genesis 1:26; John 3:16); and
WHEREAS, Children are the embodiment of the mutual self-giving love of their parents; and pregnancy reflects this reality in vocations of motherly and fatherly servanthood and sacrifice for their child’s welfare; and
WHEREAS, Surrogacy involves contracting with a woman to gestate a child with whom this surrogate mother may have no hereditary relation and whom she will not raise; and
WHEREAS, Surrogacy may also involve donation of sperm and/or egg from one or both parents who will not raise the child; and
WHEREAS, Surrogacy thus transgresses the divinely instituted one-flesh union of husband and wife by introducing up to three additional participants in procreation and gestation, and requires in-vitro fertilization; and
WHEREAS, Surrogate women usually receive compensation for medical expenses and inconvenience, so that financial considerations may motivate their participation, and the economics dehumanize and commodify both women and children; and
WHEREAS, Surrogacy intentionally separates a child from one or more biological parents contrary to the good design of God, and this may have adverse consequences for the child’s physical and psychological welfare (in addition to emotional and spiritual repercussions for the adults involved); and
WHEREAS, Pregnancy, according to God’s design, connects even a surrogate mother physically and emotionally to the child she carries, and this further complicates the child’s separation from her; therefore be it
RESOLVED, That Lutherans For Life opposes surrogacy as contrary to God’s good design; and be it further
RESOLVED, That Lutherans For Life nevertheless recognizes the intense grief of infertility and commends the holy desire to bear and raise children; and be it further
RESOLVED, That Lutherans For Life unreservedly celebrates children of surrogacy as gifts and privileges whose ultimate identity is in Jesus Christ; and be it further
RESOLVED, That Lutherans For Life assures those who regret and repent any involvement in surrogacy of their forgiveness in Christ crucified and encourages them to seek the comfort of holy absolution.
Adopted 30 May, AD 2024