Church offers morally acceptable options for infertile couples

WASHINGTON (CNS) At least 15 percent of U.S. women experience fertility-related problems sometime during their reproductive years. And Catholic women are no exception.

Although the growing field of assisted reproductive technology offers many options for those who have no moral qualms about in vitro fertilization or other methods that bring about reproduction outside the marital act, there may seem to be limited options for those who want to follow Catholic teaching. Not so, say staff members at the Pope Paul VI Institute for the Study of Human Reproduction in Omaha, Neb., and its Center for NaPro Ethics. The institute's founder and director, Dr. Thomas W. Hilgers, has developed the Creighton Model FertilityCare System, a natural method of family planning and monitoring gynecological health, and a comprehensive system of women's health called natural procreative technology, or NaPro technology for short. Through its Omaha headquarters and more than 150 satellite offices in the U.S. and abroad, physicians and other practitioners of FertilityCare offer reproductive services and obstetric and gynecological medicine that conform to Catholic teaching on marriage and responsible parenthood.

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