Rome, Italy, Oct 5, 2010 / 11:52 am
The International Federation of Catholic Medical Associations has declared its disagreement with Prof. Robert Edwards being awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine for his work in developing in vitro fertilization. The problems of infertility, the group said in an official statement, must be solved within an ethical framework which respects the dignity of the embryo as a human being.
A statement from the International Federation of Catholic Medical Associations (FIAMC) from Oct. 4 was released by the Holy See's Press Office on Tuesday concerning the recent announcement that Cambridge University professor-emeritus Robert Edwards was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine for his part in developing human IVF.
"As Catholics we believe in the absolute dignity of the human person, created in the image and likeness of God," FIAMC declared in the statement signed by their president Dr. Jose Maria Simon Castellvi. "That dignity exists from the earliest moment of the conception of the new human being, and remains with them to their natural death.”
Noting the "enormous cost," that of undermining human dignity, with which IVF has "brought happiness" to couples who have conceived through this method, FIAMC decried the use of millions of embryos, thus human beings, created and discarded "as experimental animals destined for destruction." This use of human embryos, added the statement, "has led to a culture where they are regarded as commodities rather than the precious individuals which they are.”