A Christian understanding of becoming parents: A study of Lisa Sowle Cahill's and John Paul II's moral analyses of reproductive technologies and the application of these perspectives to the situation of contemporary China

This dissertation studies parenting from the perspective of the decision and the means used to become parents and with particular reference to Chinese culture and society. Childbearing is a precious value in the Chinese tradition. Chinese people prefer male children. Large families are the traditional ideal for the Chinese. Reproductive technologies, such as In-Vitro Fertilization (IVF) and Artificial Insemination (AI), offer a means to fulfill these traditional and cultural aims. Given the contemporary circumstances of China's coercive reproductive policies, the question is whether Chinese Catholics might use reproductive technologies to fulfill this traditional desire. Chinese culture, together with Marxism, treats unborn life according to the good of the family and society. This exerts significant influence on the Chinese people's understanding of parenthood. There is a lack of systematic reflection and official vernacular Church teaching on parenthood in China. Therefore, Western theological discussion and the Church's teaching on this issue can help Chinese Catholics to develop a Christian understanding of becoming parents. By emphasizing the relational and social aspects of parenting, Lisa Sowle Cahill characterizes the parent-child relationship primarily as a freely chosen relationship, which is similar to the idea that many Chinese people hold. However, from his personalist account, John Paul II teaches that becoming parents is not only something couples choose, but something intrinsic to the vocation of marriage and the couples' bodily self-gift to one another. This study examines Cahill's and John Paul II's understanding of becoming parents as distilled from their moral analyses of reproductive technologies. Cahill's approach to parenting and reproductive technologies is closer in spirit to the values of Chinese society than John Paul II's. This is Cahill's contribution for the Chinese context. John Paul II brings to bear a full-blown personalistic hermeneutics in his analysis of the "language of the body." Having identified their respective idioms and their differences, this author argues that John Paul II's account offers a better Christian understanding of becoming parents. Therefore, the conclusion is that becoming parents is not only something couples choose, but something intrinsic to the vocation of marriage and the couples' bodily self-gift to one another.