SESSION 3: TEXT FOR WEDNESDAY 13TH OCTOBER

SESSION 3: TEXT FOR WEDNESDAY 13TH OCTOBER

VATICAN CRITICIZES IVF NOBEL AWARD

Text taken and adapted from:

http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/


The text:

Vatican officials have hit out at the awarding of the Nobel Prize for Medicine to the pioneer of in-vitro fertilization, Dr Robert Edwards. They said the award to the British researcher was "completely out of place" and went against all Christian teaching on procreation. Spokesman Monsignor Ignacio Carrasco de Paula told the ANSA news agency that IVF has led to “incomprehensible situations like children born from grandmothers and mothers 'for hire'”. He expressed his horror at "the great number of frozen embryos around the world, which at best are waiting to be transferred to wombs but will most probably end up being abandoned or dying”. The current Pope Benedict XVI believes IVF is morally wrong because it replaced the natural sexual union between husband and wife.

In-vitro fertilization is the process of fertilizing human egg cells by sperm outside a woman's womb. It created the world’s first “test-tube baby” in 1978 and has since created four million babies. IVF has changed the lives of millions of infertile couples who could not have children. The Nobel Prize committee said Professor Edwards' pioneering work had brought "joy to infertile people all over the world". They added: "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.” The first baby born via IVF, Louise Brown, 32, said the award was "fantastic news". She told reporters she was “so glad that one of the pioneers of IVF has been given the recognition he deserves”.

'Vatican criticizes IVF Nobel Award' 5th October, 2010
http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/