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KBS Agrees with Vatican Protest Against Nobel Prize Award for Edwards
Tuesday 05 Octtber 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, October 5 (TASR) - Conference of Slovak Bishops (KBS) Chairman and Bratislava archbishop Stanislav Zvolensky agrees with the stance of the Vatican in its objections to the awarding of the Nobel Prize for Medicine 2010 to the pioneer of in vitro fertilisation (IVF), British professor Robert Edwards.
"I agree with the stance of the Holy See on this affair, and take it as my own," said Zvolensky.
It was decided on October 4 in Stockholm that the Nobel Prize for Medicine will go to Edwards. Along with Patrick Steptoe, who died in 1988, the British scientist developed in vitro fertilisation, thus helping millions of infertile couples to have a child. The method involves fertilisation of a mother's egg outside her body and consequently inserting it back into her womb.
An official at the Vatican said that this award is "totally unacceptable". President of the Academy of Vatican Affairs of Life Aegnajew Carrasco de Paula said that to give the prize to Edwards means to ignore and override the ethical questions posed by the issue of fertility treatment. According to Carrasco de Paula, Edwards is responsible for the boom of the ova trade. He thinks that IVF is the source of "chaos in the contemporary world, allowing babies to be born to grandmothers or so-called 'mercenary mothers'".
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