Senior figures in Poland's Catholic Church used a religious gathering at the Jasna Góra monastery last weekend to denounce in vitro fertilisation, drawing criticism from a government official and a leading fertility doctor.
Father Tadeusz Rydzyk, director of the influential conservative broadcaster Radio Maryja, told worshippers that IVF amounted to "killing many children so that one is born."
Bishop Wiesław Szlachetka, an auxiliary bishop in Gdańsk, went further, urging couples to pursue adoption instead and promoting "NaProTechnology" – a fertility method based on tracking a woman's natural cycle – as an effective, church-approved alternative.
He also used his sermon to criticise same-sex adoption, abortion and voluntary euthanasia, and to argue that religious education is being sidelined in Polish schools.
The remarks were made during Mass marking the 35th Radio Maryja Family Pilgrimage.
Katarzyna Kotula, Poland's government plenipotentiary for equality, condemned the comments on television, describing them as a "gospel of hatred and contempt for other people."
Professor Piotr Laudański, a fertility specialist and founder of a Warsaw clinic, disputed both the clergy's claims and their terminology.
He told private broadcaster TVN24 that NaProTechnology is no substitute for IVF, since cycle-tracking cannot help patients with conditions such as advanced endometriosis, blocked fallopian tubes or severe male infertility.
He also noted that Polish law bans embryo destruction: couples with surplus embryos can either donate them to others or have them stored for up to 20 years, after which they are automatically released for donation.
Laudański added that the correct clinical term is "infertility" rather than "sterility," pointing out that medical advances, including uterus transplants and donor sperm, mean even severe cases can often still be treated.
He said moral objections to IVF are now rare among his patients, crediting Poland's state-funded fertility programme with shifting public attitudes.
(ał)
Source: polsatnews.pl, tvn24.pl