Fragmented parenthood is the splitting of parenthood into genetic, gestational, and social parenthood through reproductive-medical procedures such as in-vitro fertilization, surrogacy, and gamete donation.
In the natural order, genetic, gestational, and social parenthood are united in one person (mother or father, respectively). Fragmentation contradicts the personal unity of the parent-child relationship and can lead to identity conflicts in the child.
From the standpoint of personal ontology, the family is a communio personarum — a community of persons grounded in love and in self-gift. Fragmentation dissolves this unity and turns parenthood into a contractual construction. Karol Wojtyła emphasizes that the parent-child relationship is not a mere biological or social function, but a personal relationship grounded in the personalist norm.
Fragmented parenthood is a form of practical oblivion of the person, because it treats the child as the object of a wish whose origin can be regulated by contract, instead of as a person who has a right to the unity of her origin.
Ontological Classification
Superordinate concepts: Practical oblivion of the person
Chapter assignment: Chapter 5: Oblivion of the Person (German)
See also
- Parenthood
- Surrogacy
- Commercial Surrogacy
- Altruistic Surrogacy
- In-vitro Fertilization
- Three-Parent IVF (Mitochondrial Donation)
- Ectogenesis
- Artificial Womb
- Right to Knowledge of Genetic Origin
- Gamete Donation
- Family
- Motherhood
- Karol Wojtyła
Sources: Generated by querying the Personhood ontology.