Catholic Teacher in WI Violates Contract By Using In Vitro Fertilization

Kelly Romenesko was teaching French at two Roman Catholic schools in Appleton when she and her husband decided to start a family using in vitro fertilization.

After asking for some time off in September 2004 to complete the procedure, the lifelong Catholic gave her boss an update about a month later: She was pregnant.

But only days after that, she said, she got a pink slip by the Catholic school system. Administrators, according to her lawyer James C. Jones, claimed Romenesko violated a provision of her employment contract saying a teacher has to act in accordance with Catholic doctrine.

"All she was trying to do was have a child, which of course should be a wonderful thing," Jones said Tuesday.

In vitro fertilization involves extracting eggs from a woman's ovaries and fertilizing them with sperm in a laboratory dish or test tube. The fertilized eggs are implanted into the woman's uterus.

Catholic teaching holds that the procedure is morally wrong because it replaces the "natural" conjugal union between husband and wife and often results in destruction of embryos.


Even though Jones said the couple used their own eggs and sperm and none of the embryos were destroyed in the process, the church forbids such donations and condemns all forms of experimentation on human embryos.


Romenesko, 37, filed a discrimination complaint against her old employers, Appleton Catholic Educational System, Inc./Xavier, which runs seven Catholic schools in Appleton, about 100 miles north of Milwaukee.

An investigator from the Equal Rights Division of the state Department of Workforce Development upheld the firing in December and Romenesko appealed. A hearing before an administrative law judge is set for Friday.

Having a child is a wonderful thing when it is done in a natural, moral way. If a couple is not able to conceive, adoption is a wonderful solution to the problem. I don't have a lot of empathy for this woman as she agreed from the beginning to act in accordance with Catholic doctrine. Now she is violating that agreement. She should have seen this coming.

Comments

  1. Too bad the school system doesn't check out how many male staff/faculty members have had vasectomies, how many other staff/faculty have used in vitro successfully, asked staff/faculty males how their children were conceived. This woman is being punished for telling the truth, one of the basic tenets of any Christian faith, including Catholicism.

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  3. While she may have told the truth, she didn't live out the truth in her life.

    In Vitro Fertlilization is immoral. She told others she committed an a sinful and immoral act which is against Catholic teaching. She violated her contract and she set a bad example for her students.

    What she did was not only immoral, but was scandalous. Now she has to face the natural consequences of her behavior.

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