Oct
2010 5

Robert G. Edwards VS the Vatican

Category: Articles
Tags: Robert G. Edwards VS the Vatican

I came across two articles the other day about the Nobel prize Robert Edwards won for the development of in vitro fertilization. I won’t take any side (in public) i’m just going to post both them and leave comment’s to you. ROCK n ROLL!

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2010

Robert G. Edwards

Summary

Robert Edwards is awarded the 2010 Nobel Prize for the development of human in vitro fertilization (IVF) therapy. His achievements have made it possible to treat infertility, a medical condition afflicting a large proportion of humanity including more than 10% of all couples worldwide.

As early as the 1950s, Edwards had the vision that IVF could be useful as a treatment for infertility. He worked systematically to realize his goal, discovered important principles for human fertilization, and succeeded in accomplishing fertilization of human egg cells in test tubes (or more precisely, cell culture dishes). His efforts were finally crowned by success on 25 July, 1978, when the world’s first “test tube baby” was born. During the following years, Edwards and his co-workers refined IVF technology and shared it with colleagues around the world.

Approximately four million individuals have so far been born following IVF. Many of them are now adult and some have already become parents. A new field of medicine has emerged, with Robert Edwards leading the process all the way from the fundamental discoveries to the current, successful IVF therapy. His contributions represent a milestone in the development of modern medicine.

Infertility – a medical and psychological problem

More than 10% of all couples worldwide are infertile. For many of them, this is a great disappointment and for some causes lifelong psychological trauma. Medicine has had limited opportunities to help these individuals in the past. Today, the situation is entirely different. In vitro fertilization (IVF) is an established therapy when sperm and egg cannot meet inside the body.

Vatican slams Nobel win for IVF doc

“I find the choice of Robert Edwards completely out of order,” Ignacio Carrasco de Paula, head of the Pontifical Academy for Life, which speaks for the Vatican on medical ethics issues, told ANSA news agency on Monday.

“Without Edwards, there would not be a market on which millions of ovocytes are sold … and there would not be a large number of freezers filled with embryos in the world,” he was quoted as saying.

“In the best of cases they are transferred into a uterus, but most probably they will end up abandoned or dead, which is a problem for which the new Nobel Prize winner is responsible.”

These statements were heavily moderated in a transcript of his interview with ANSA, which was obtained by AFP later on Monday.

In the transcript, Carrasco de Paula called the choice of Edwards understandable and said the scientist should not be underestimated.

The transcript also specified that he was speaking in a personal capacity.

-manoc-

Rating: 0 (from 0 votes)