Polish bishops bar IVF supporters from communion

Touchstone
June 11, 2010
By Jonathan Luxmoore

Warsaw, 11 June (ENI)--Poland's bishops have warned Roman Catholic Church members that they cannot receive Holy Communion if they support in vitro fertilisation, because it is a violation of church law comparable to abortion.

"The church always defends the weakest, especially the totally defenceless, who include conceived children," the Family Council of the bishops' conference had said on 19 May. "Those who kill them, and those who actively participate in this killing or make laws against conceived life, including the life of a child in embryonic state, which is largely destroyed by in vitro procedure, stand in open conflict with the Catholic Church's teaching."

The council's statement was issued amid controversy over plans by the Polish government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk for a new bioethics law that would allow IVF to be funded from the State health budget. the rest