In natural law ethics, nature and the natural processes of life are good while going against nature and natural human inclinations is bad. According to Aristotle and his great Catholic commentator, Thomas Aquinas, there are four very basic natural human inclinations which are the good desires to (1) stay alive; (2) produce and care for a child; (3) learn the truth; (4) live amicably with others. In terms of morality, natural law says that our duties go along with these four natural inclinations. In the late 1980s, a Long Island couple married and tried to have children but couldn't so Maureen and Steven Kass turned to in vitro fertilization. For something like 9 years they kept trying but none of the fertilized eggs from Steven and Maureen ever came to the successful birth of a child. Finally, in their early 40s and still childless, Maureen and Steven decided to divorce. But then they faced a problem: What to do with the fertilized eggs still frozen in storage. Steven wanted the fertilized but frozen eggs destroyed as the contract they had signed said. Maureen wanted them saved for possible future implantation because she still wanted children and these frozen fertilized eggs were her only chance.

In natural law ethics, nature and the natural processes of life are good while going against nature and natural human inclinations is bad.

According to Aristotle and his great Catholic commentator, Thomas Aquinas, there are four very basic natural human inclinations which are the good desires to (1) stay alive; (2) produce and care for a child; (3) learn the truth; (4) live amicably with others. In terms of morality, natural law says that our duties go along with these four natural inclinations.

In the late 1980s, a Long Island couple married and tried to have children but couldn’t so Maureen and Steven Kass turned to in vitro fertilization. For something like 9 years they kept trying but none of the fertilized eggs from Steven and Maureen ever came to the successful birth of a child. Finally, in their early 40s and still childless, Maureen and Steven decided to divorce. But then they faced a problem: What to do with the fertilized eggs still frozen in storage. Steven wanted the fertilized but frozen eggs destroyed as the contract they had signed said. Maureen wanted them saved for possible future implantation because she still wanted children and these frozen fertilized eggs were her only chance.