By Hilary White
APPLETON, Wisconsin, August 29, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A Wisconsin Catholic woman who was fired in May 2006 from her teaching position at a Catholic school after she underwent IVF treatments, has dropped her discrimination case against the ACES/Xavier Catholic school system after admitting that she was fired legally. Kelly Romenesko sent an emailed note to the Post Cresent newspaper saying that she needed to move on and that dropping the case, while not good for her financially, was a positive decision “emotionally.”
“This could’ve been going on for who knows how long and there was always a piece of me that was focused on this case and that was taking away from my children and other aspects of my life,” Romenesko said
Romenesko, who was awarded a settlement of an undisclosed amount, was fired from her position at St. Joseph Middle School and Xavier High School, after she asked for time off to undergo IVF treatments. Romenesko later gave birth to twin girls.
In a letter to the court, Romenesko wrote, “While I will not be made whole for my economic losses that I suffered based upon the termination of my employment, I do appreciate the fact that a financial contribution will be made to my family to help lessen the financial burden that challenging the termination decision has imposed upon us.”
The school’s contract stipulates that teachers must abide with Catholic teaching in their personal as well as professional lives. Romenesko told local media at the time that she had had no idea that the Church was opposed to IVF.
“I kind of thought that (the contract terms) meant to follow the Ten Commandments, that kind of thing,” she said.
The local bishop, Bishop David A. Zubik, wished her and her daughters well, but reiterated the Church’s teaching on IVF. The Catholic prohibition against artificially assisted procreation is one of the least-known teachings but extrapolates naturally from the doctrines surrounding the sanctity of human life and marriage.
In its 1986 landmark document, “Donum Vitae” or “The Gift of Life,” then-Cardinal Ratzinger wrote that in vitro fertilisation “Entrusts the life and identity of the embryo into the power of doctors and biologists and establishes the domination of technology over the origin and destiny of the human person.”
The Church teaches that besides the massive loss of human life at the embryonic stage entailed by artificial procreation, such procedures reduce the child to a commodity that can be treated as property.
Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Teacher Fired for IVF Treatment “Had no idea” the Catholic Church was Opposed
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/may/06050903.html