Trouble in Vatican: Pontifical Academy members upset with ethics deficit at infertility conference

[Guest guest]

I can't believe these guys are still getting way with this:

>

> At least three of the four morning speakers, according to witnesses,

> referred to IVF as an appropriate option for some female sufferers of

> infertility.

>

> BY Kathleen Gilbert

>

> VATICAN CITY, February 27, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A gathering of the

> Vatican’s own academy for promoting respect for life was met with palpable

> discontent from its own members and other registrants after presenters on

> the topic of infertility alluded to in-vitro fertilization (IVF) and other

> artificial reproduction technologies as “natural” and legitimate for

> treating patients, despite their conflict with Catholic moral teaching.

>

> In addition, one prominent Catholic doctor who noted the link between the

> birth control pill and breast cancer was told by the moderator that his

> claim was false.

>

> The Pontifical Academy for Life (PAV) on Friday took up the topic of

> managing infertility at its 18th General Assembly.

>

> A press packet included an interview with PAV President Bishop Ignacio

> Carrasco de a emphasizing the Assembly would not be “dealing with

> ethical considerations of artificial fertilization” because “that’s a

> different subject”. The bishop, who in 2010 publicly criticized the

> awarding of a Nobel prize to a pioneer of in vitro fertilization, said that

> the February 24 Vatican workshop’s concern was to utilize a “rigorously

> medical and scientific” approach to divulge insufficiently known methods

> of fertility treatment to couples.

>

> While some attendees said much of the conference offered helpful insights

> into the causes of infertility, such as delaying pregnancy and environmental

> factors, and presented some excellent new research on treating infertility

> causes, the majority of speakers also discussed such procedures as IVF and

> intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) as viable alternatives for couples

> having difficulty conceiving. The speakers were selected by the PAV

> leadership.

>

> At least three of the four morning speakers, according to witnesses,

> referred to IVF as an appropriate option for some female sufferers of

> infertility. And although witnesses say moderators distanced the PAV’s

> views from the presenters’, the assurance fell short for audience members

> who gave vent to frustration during the day.

>

> During the lunch break, one prominent member told LifeSiteNews that the

> morning sessions were “the best case you get for amoral science.”

> Another called the conference “a disaster” and another “a tragedy”.

>

> In the afternoon session, Eberhard Nieschlag of the Center for Reproductive

> Medicine and Andrology at the University of Münster noted that artificial

> insemination “can be tried if there are not enough sperm” and, after

> showing a video of a needle forcing a sperm into a human egg, described the

> process as “not really artificial.”

>

> Pressed on the point by an audience member during a later Q & A (see audio

> file below), Nieschlag defended the remark by saying that “the actual

> fertilization process is completely natural.” “The way to bring the

> sperm and the egg together [is artificial] but the fertilization is not

> artificial,” he said. “That’s what I mean. But I think it’s mainly a

> semantic problem.”

>

> Listen to brief audio of notable excerpts from Q & A session at the end of

> the conference:

>

>

>

> Hosted by kiwi6.com file hosting.

> Download mp3 - Free File Hosting.

>

>

> The audience responded to the last remark with a growing clamor, including

> some rapping on their chairs in protest.

>

> “I think from the audience’s reaction it’s clearly not,” chairperson

> Prof. Angelique Goverde interjected, adding that she would not enter “a

> theoretical or philosophical or religious debate” but the audience

> response indicated “we have a different point of view in this concern.”

>

> The teaching authority of the Catholic Church has stated that artificial

> reproduction is morally objectionable, not only because techniques such as

> IVF regularly dispose of human embryos and “reduce” multiple pregnancies

> with abortions, but because children have a right to be conceived naturally

> in the marital act and not as a consumer product.

>

> On its website, the PAV describes itself as existing “for the promotion

> and defense of human life, especially regarding bioethics as it regards

> Christian morality.”

>

> Another conflict arose after several audience members challenged the morning

> speakers for emphasizing beneficial effects of the hormonal birth control

> pill on women’s health, to the exclusion of its detriments.

> Hilgers, Director of the National Center for Women’s Health at the Pope

> VI Institute for the Study of Human Reproduction, took to the

> microphone to point out that this tack fell in line with “a major

> marketing component of the oral contraceptive for the last ten years.”

>

> “They’ll raise things like, once raised this morning, that you can cut

> the ovarian cancer rate in half [by taking oral contraceptives]. Well

> that’s good, but what if you increase the breast cancer rate in the

> process, or the cervical cancer rate?” he said. “It’s given as a

> health benefit without looking at the health implications, and that’s an

> unbalanced view, but it’s being sold that way, and it’s on purpose.”

>

> Chairperson Goverde interjected asserting to the contrary that oral

> contraceptives did not increase the breast cancer risk but did agree that it

> increased the cervical cancer risk. Hilgers interjected to refer Goverde to

> a 2006 meta-analysis by the Mayo clinic showing the pill’s clear link to

> breast cancer. Hilgers later pointed to Ortho Tri-Cyclen’s own

> documentation showing the breast cancer link.

>

>

> IVF industry eclipses real science: expert

>

> Hilgers’ half-hour talk outlined the significant success of NaPro

> technology, a cost-effective method for discovering and treating underlying

> causes of infertility, and one that is not “built on a foundation of

> destroying life.” However, he said, these gains have been largely eclipsed

> by the IVF industry, particularly in the United States: had it not been for

> the race to create children artificially, said Hilgers, “we probably would

> have had a cure for infertility by now.”

>

> The NaPro expert’s presentation that was fully in line with Catholic moral

> ethics was met with sustained applause far exceeding that given for any of

> the other speakers of the day.

>

> In later remarks to LSN, the doctor expressed concern that the crowding-out

> of real infertility treatment by the IVF mindset was reflected at the

> conference itself.

>

> Hilgers, a member of the PAV since 1994 and an international leader in his

> field, said the science of the day’s speakers “wasn’t good at all”

> and named several experts who could have offered insights into authentic

> fertility treatment, but said the conference didn’t approach him for

> suggested names. According to the PAV website, topics and speakers are

> chosen from a pool of submitted professional papers by a Governing Council

> currently composed of four lay experts and four clerics who include the

> President and Chancellor or the PAV.

>

> Not all PAV conferences have been so controversial: Hilgers pointed out that

> last year’s conference on the psychological effects of abortion featured

> “really good” experts and information. However, he said, like a similar

> fertility conference by the academy over a decade ago, Friday’s was

> problematic for featuring “one IVF person after another.”

>

> “[This year’s conference was] a huge disservice to Catholics everywhere

> for the Pontifical Academy for Life, which is the major Catholic pro-life

> organization you could say, to come into formal cooperation with a group of

> people who are diametrically opposed to the Church’s teaching,” he said.

>

>

> Others told LifeSiteNews.com (LSN) that at a follow-up meeting Saturday

> morning for official members, several members expressed their discontent

> regarding the selection of speakers and the lack of ethical context

> throughout most of the day. One PAV member called it a “pile-on”. It was

> said that more wanted to express similar comments but were not recognized by

> the PAV leadership.

>

>

> ‘The arrogance of taking the place of the Creator’

>

> The following morning, the speakers, PAV members, and others at the

> conference attended a special PAV audience with Pope Benedict XVI in the

> Apostolic Palace.

>

> In contrast to the conference’s avoidance of Catholic ethical concerns, a

> notably subdued pontiff emphasized the moral roots of reproduction in the

> conjugal act and warned against the fertility industry’s lure of “easy

> income, or even worse, the arrogance of taking the place of the Creator,”

> quoting his own words from 2008. “The human and Christian dignity of

> procreation, in fact, doesn’t consist in a ‘product’, but in its link

> to the conjugal act, an expression of the love of the spouses of their

> union, not only biological but also spiritual,” said Benedict.

>

> The pope also warned that the “indifference of conscience to what is true

> and good represents a dangerous threat to genuine scientific progress,” as

> “scientism and the logic of profit” now dominate the field “to the

> point of limiting many other areas of research.”

>

> “The humility and precision with which you study these issues, considered

> obsolete by some of your colleagues before the allure of the technology of

> artificial insemination, deserves encouragement and support,” he said.

>

> One member said the pope’s remarks were a saving grace for the troubled

> conference.

>

> “If it weren’t for the pope’s speech, the conference would have been a

> devastating blow to truth,” the member said.

>

>

> Contact information:

>

> pav@...

>

> See list of staff and members of PAV

>

>

>

>

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