The Culture of Death Gets Its Gong



Robert Edwards, the physiologist who developed In-Vitro Fertilisation treatment has been awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine for his work.  I do not have much time for the Nobel Prize anymore, it has become a gong in the gift of ideologues who promote an anti-life and an anti-Christian agenda.  My loss of confidence in the decisions of the committee began when they refused to award the Nobel Peace Prize to Pope John Paul II for his work in bringing down Communism, despite his being nominated year in year out.  No problem if they had better candidates, but the reason he was passed over each year was because, as a Lutheran minister on the committee explained, of his position on contraception.  When he changes the Church's teaching, the minister explained, then he may get it.  So much for objectivity.  The last straw was awarding the Peace Prize to Barack Obama who, even up to now, has done nothing to deserve it.  That award was mere obeisance, part of the liberal world's worship of a man they have raised almost to the status of a Messiah.

Now they decide to honour a man who, they say, has brought joy to millions of infertile couples, allowing them to have a child of their own (or maybe someone else's depending on the whether the "bits and pieces" measure up).  Four million babies have been born thanks to Dr Edwards work, they point out: see here for the Press Release.  Ok, just to let you know, I am red hot.  Of all the bad decisions of this committee, I think this has to rank as one of the worst.  To award a prestigious award to a man who is responsible for the death of millions of human beings through his experiments and the "wastage" from each treatment, is not only offensive but, I believe, reckless.  I will be accused of trying to impose Catholic teaching, which is opposed to IVF on moral grounds, on science - but this is not a religious issue, it is not even just a moral issue: it is a human issue because, as science and medicine tell us, and can prove, though ignored by many practitioners, a unique human life exists from the moment of conception - not a product, not a commodity, not a bunch of mere cells, or inanimate matter to be experimented on and used at will. 

In his encylical, Evangelium Vitae points out why IVF is so objectionable:

The various techniques of artificial reproduction, which would seem to be at the service of life and which are frequently used with this intention, actually open the door to new threats against life. Apart from the fact that they are morally unacceptable, since they separate procreation from the fully human context of the conjugal act, these techniques have a high rate of failure: not just failure in relation to fertilization but with regard to the subsequent development of the embryo, which is exposed to the risk of death, generally within a very short space of time. Furthermore, the number of embryos produced is often greater than that needed for implantation in the woman's womb, and these so-called "spare embryos" are then destroyed or used for research which, under the pretext of scientific or medical progress, in fact reduces human life to the level of simple "biological material" to be freely disposed of.     (EV, 14)

Your heart goes out to infertile couples.  But to try and ease their plight by creating at will, in a test tube, human beings, and then discarding some because they do not fit the bill or are not "viable", is not noble nor helping anyone.  It degrades us as humans to play around with life like that, it not only objectifies the conceived individual, but is also makes us consumers when it comes to our children: IVF, by its very nature, tells us that a child is not a gift, but rather something we can make if we need to.  There is a better way.  Pity so few scientists seem interested in finding it; pity that influential organisations like the Nobel Committee are not bothered to honour it.


UPDATE:

Two related stories, thanks to the Archbold brothers:

An ex-priest who thinks the Church is too focused on humans and that is why things are so bad in the environment: http://www.creativeminorityreport.com/2010/10/church-is-too-focused-on-humans.html.

Virginia Ironside believes it to be act of love for a mother to smother her diabled child, all the mothers she knows think so anyway: http://www.ncregister.com/blog/shock-smothering-a-disabled-child-an-act-of-love.

The world of full of crazy people.