The Suffering Caused By Infertility in Marriage

 

The suffering of spouses who cannot have children or who are afraid of

 

bringing a handicapped child into the world is a suffering that everyone must

 

understand and properly evaluate.

 

On the part of the spouses, the desire for a child is natural: it

 

expresses the vocation to fatherhood and motherhood inscribed in conjugal

 

love. This desire can be even stronger if the couple is affected by sterility

 

which appears incurable. Nevertheless, marriage does not confer upon the

 

spouses the right to have a child, but only the right to perform those natural

 

acts which are per se ordered to procreation.|

 

A true and proper right to a child would be contrary to the child's

 

dignity and nature. The child is not an object to which one has a right, nor

 

can he be considered as an object of ownership: rather, a child is a gift,

 

"the supreme gift" and the most gratuitous gift of marriage, and is a

 

living testimony of the mutual giving of his parents. For this reason, the

 

child has the right, as already mentioned, to be the fruit of the specific act

 

of the conjugal love of his parents; and he also has the right to be respected

 

as a person from the moment of his conception.

 

Nevertheless, whatever its cause or prognosis, sterility is certainly a

 

difficult trial. The community of believers is called to shed light upon and

 

support the suffering of those who are unable to fulfill their legitimate

 

aspiration to motherhood and fatherhood. Spouses who find themselves in this

 

sad situation are called to find in it an opportunity for sharing in a

 

particular way in the Lord's Cross, the source of spiritual fruitfulness.

 

Sterile couples must not forget that "even when procreation is not possible,

 

conjugal life does not for this reason lose its value. Physical sterility in

 

fact can be for spouses the occasion for other important services to the life

 

of the human person, for example, adoption, various forms of educational work,

 

and assistance to other families and to poor or handicapped children."