The Arena · Father Josiah Trenham

Interview | IVF, Surrogacy, and the Christian Vision of Parenthood

February 12, 2026·39 min·3 clips

Breckenridge argues surrogacy separates motherhood into three optional women — birth mother, genetic mother, social mother — while intentionally risking the primal wound in newborns.

Silent Sorrows sits at the center of the conversation. The host introduces Catherine Breckenridge through her book on abortion, reproductive technologies, and adoption, then begins with marriage, children, Pittsburgh, and how she became Orthodox. Her story starts close to home. She was raised Episcopal, newly married, and drawn into Orthodox parish life after her father grew dissatisfied with the Episcopal world. The interview stays warm and personal, but it soon turns toward the moral status of reproductive technologies, especially the creation and loss of embryos in laboratories. Catherine gets specific. She talks about culture, petri dishes, incubators, zinc, antibacterial substances, and the artificial conditions where fertilized eggs are made to develop. The science is part of her moral case. Her objection is not simply that embryos die, since natural loss can happen, but that children are deliberately created inside a system where that loss is expected. The host takes the point seriously. He focuses on intention, will, and the difference between suffering under the fall and setting up conditions where vulnerable lives may be lost. His answer comes back to the creation of life. In his account, life belongs to the loving embrace of husband and wife and to the miracle of God. The doctor changes that meaning. Once a third party enters the most intimate union, the host argues, parenthood becomes harder to see clearly because the miracle is no longer simply marital and hidden. Adoption stays in view too. The conversation treats it alongside abortion and reproductive technology as part of a Christian account of children, family, suffering, and moral responsibility. The ending turns pastoral. The host commends Catherine's work, returns to Silent Sorrows, and asks about her forthcoming writing on reproductive technologies, eugenics movements, and parish study materials. He describes the need as ecclesial, then sends her out with blessing, gratitude, and a prayer that God strengthen her in work the Church badly needs.

As heard by us

A grave, clear case for treating reproduction as theology, not procedure.

This episode treats abortion, reproductive technology, and adoption from an Orthodox Christian angle, and it does so with real moral weight. Catherine Breckenridge speaks directly about intention, parenthood, and the role of the doctor in assisted reproduction, while the…

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Want an Orthodox Christian take on IVF, reproductive technologies, and parenthood?

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