ASSISTED REPRODUCTION IN THE LIGHT OF CHRISTIANITY AND ISLAM. DIALOGUE AND / OR CONFRONTATION?

Abstract

The aim of the development of science and technology that we have been witnessing in the past decades, is not only to improve the quality of life, but life itself. New reproductive technologies are presented as something in service of improving life, but it turns out that this development is beginning to re-conceptualize the basic concepts of identity, gender roles, kinship, social equality and existing cultural, religious and ethical norms. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the development of scholarly debates about the relationship of new reproductive technologies, seen as modem achievements which strongly influence the life of a man, and religion, as something of a more traditional network of conceptions and ethos that a man uses to leam about himself and the world around him. The paper analyzes the religious views of Christianity and Islam on the homologous (medica) procedures that use sex cells of reproductively-challenged spouses) or heterologous (medica! methods which include donation of sperm and/or eggs) assisted reproduction, with the aim of finding the opportunity for dialogue and/or place of confrontation in applying new reproductive procedures and traditional religious conceptions, in cases when "natura)" procreation is not possible and infertility is a highly undesirable...