Head of the Department of Bioethics at the Medical University of Lodz dr hab. Kazimierz Szewczyk on the Nobel Prize for Robert G. Edwards for in vitro fertilization:
The method developed by Edwards is certainly a valid, modern method of fertility treatment. Any such technology that spreads, however, brings with it challenges, because it can, inter alia, disrupt traditional family relationships. After all, the sperm donor does not have to be the spouse or even the partner of the child’s mother. After all, the donors of the egg can be completely foreign women, you can also donate the fertilized zygote. Therefore, the IVF method is certainly a challenge for classic parenting relationships.
It is possible to perform preimplantation diagnostics, i.e. to eliminate certain genetic defects in a two-cell embryo by collecting fragments of material. Then, paradoxically, a woman – for the first time in history – can get pregnant + on trial +. If it turns out that the zygote is not the carrier of the defect, it is implanted, and if it is, the implantation is abandoned.
Although this element presents some challenges, it does reduce – at least theoretically – episodes of abortion due to damage to the fetus. The latter is ethically more negative than removing the embryo itself.
There will always be such controversies in democratic societies, but if there is such a method, the state should ensure it. Those who have very strong objections should promote their attitude, but not forbid all members of society from this right. All controversy is a matter of worldview, mainly about when a person begins as a person.
Man as a representative of the homo sapiens species begins at the moment of conception, but when he begins as a person with moral rights – with the right to life at the forefront – it is a philosophical and philosophical issue. It will never find a universal solution, so this method will be controversial for a long time.
I believe that human embryos deserve special protection and the institutions that carry out this fertilization should respect them with due respect, but different countries adopt different solutions here. (PAP)