A Christian Understanding of Becoming Parents

Almost all cultures and societies affirm the importance of having children. However, reproductive technologies challenge the traditional understanding of the process by which a couple becomes parents. Technologies do this by separating the procreation of children from the conjugal act. This forces people to rethink the concept of becoming parents. Different people have different views on the use of reproductive technologies and different understandings of parenting. Lisa Sowle Cahill characterizes the parent-child relationship primarily as a freely chosen relationship. However, John Paul II teaches that becoming parents is not only something couples choose, but something intrinsic to marriage and couples' self-gift to each other. This book examines Cahill's and John Paul II's understanding of becoming parents as distilled from their moral analyses of reproductive technologies. It will study parenting in regard to the attitude with which couples approach parenthood, as well as the decision and the means used to become parents with particular reference to Chinese culture and society. Cahill's approach to parenting and reproductive technologies is closer in spirit to the values of Chinese society than John Paul II's. John Paul II brings to bear a full-blown personalistic hermeneutics in his analysis. Having identified their respective idioms and their differences, the author argues 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. It is a good work for any student or professor of theology. It helps couples to have a better understanding of becoming parents. It also offers wonderful information for further research on this subject with reference to Chinese situation.