Edwards ignored that the true agenda of in-vitro fertilization (IVF)
includes hubris towards human life and the dominance of scientists over
society, a Scottish columnist has argued.
While some have attacked the Catholic Church's criticism of the Nobel
Committee, Gerald Warner said in The Scotsman, the Church's reaction was
"no more aggressive" than the professor's own comments.
According to Warner, the IVF pioneer Edwards has said of his work: "I
wanted to find out exactly who was in charge, whether it was God Himself
or whether it was scientists in the laboratory - It was us! The Pope
looked totally stupid."
"That hubristic claim revealed the true IVF agenda, which was not
primarily to assist childless couples," Warner charged. "Above all, it
was about the right of scientists to dominate society with a
dehumanizing technology which nobody must presume to constrain."
The columnist said that no critics have stopped to ask why the Church
condemns IVF. According to Warner, the Church accepts the "scientific
principle recognized since 1883" that a human being comes into existence
at the moment of fertilization.
"That confers an inviolable right to life," he continued, noting
Catholic teaching that IVF wrongly separates the unitive and procreative
purposes of marriage.
"(I)n practical terms it has killed millions of human embryos," Warner
said of the procedure. In his view, a development of immense moral
implications has been allowed "without serious debate."
Deeming the record of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority
(HFEA) to be "appalling," he said it has worked opposite to its purpose
of protecting the special status of the human embryo and has never
refused a research license.
"(I)t might as well have never existed," Warner wrote, noting that it is
about to be abolished and replaced by the Care Quality Commission with
possibly "even less oversight of this morally acute area."
Source: CNA
Publish Date: October 12, 2010
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Illinois Federation for Right to Life
2600 State Street, Suite. E
Alton, IL 62002
Phone: 618.466.4122
Fax: 618.466.4134
Web: www.ifrl.org
E-mail: mail@ifrl.org
