Vatican condemns Nobel Prize for IVF

Susan BarretoSusan is an author with a long-time interest in religion and science. She currently edits Covalence, the Lutheran Alliance for Faith, Science and Technology’s online magazine. She has written articles in The Lutheran and the Zygon Center for Religion and Science newsletter. Susan is a board member for the Center for Advanced Study of Religion and Science, the supporting organization for the Zygon Center and the Zygon Journal. She also co-wrote Our Bodies Are Selves with Dr. Philip Hefner and Dr. Ann Pederson.

Catholic organizations and the Vatican have spoken out against the Nobel Prize committee’s decision to award the 2010 Nobel for Medicine to Robert Edwards for his research into in vitro fertilization (IVF).

The Vatican said in a statement that the ethical debate is not about prevention of infertility and says very little about how to prevent requests for euthanasia or abortion. At the same time the adoption of such practices depends on the choice of the person involved and that is a criterion that is itself a basis of abandonment and loneliness.

The Science and Life Association in Rome is reportedly said to have called the decision to award the prize a populist one that fails to take into account the ethical dimension. Catholic groups generally point to other research into other disorders as being more worthy of recognition rather than placing value on techniques that involve possible destruction of human embryos.