Moscow patriarchate criticizes Nobel Prize award for in-vitro pioneer

October 06, 2010

A spokesman for the Russian Orthodox Church has condemned the decision to award the Nobel Prize for Medicine to Robert Edwards, a pioneer in developing in-vitro fertilization.

“An embryo is a future human being and not just an accumulation of cells or a part of a mother's body,” said Archpriest Nikolay Balashov, spokesman for the Moscow patriarchate. “Theoretically, the child can have two fathers, a biological one and the one who raised him, and two mothers, a biological one and the one who bore him during the pregnancy.”

 

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Further information:

• IVF pioneer should not have been awarded Nobel Prize - Russian Church (Interfax)
• Vatican criticizes Nobel Prize award to in-vitro pioneer (CWN, 10/5)