By: Robin Murray-o'hair
Re: Fertility Clinic Closed

FERTILITY CLINIC CLOSED

Next time a conservative religious leader tells you that the
religious *really* don't want to legislate morals, just say to
yourself "Remember Poland."

It seems that Novum, a fertility clinic in Warsaw, was trying to
help infertile couples have children. As part of the process, in some
instances, it froze embryos for test-tube fertilization.

So what?

Well, according to Bishop Tadeusz Pieronek, "The church does not
want children to come from factories. A child is the fruit of love,
not high-tech." Accordingly, Anna Greziak, the chief doctor of
Warsaw, ordered the clinic to stop any freezing of embryos. After
all, she says, the method, condemned by the church, "interferes
with the essence of humanity." The order has effectively stopped
the work of the clinic. Thus, Roman Catholic doctrine becomes the law
for childless Polish couples.

In another front in Poland, the Roman Catholic church is
demanding that a state/church separation clause be dropped from
the country's constitution. The church also wishes that an
invocation to its god be included in the new constitution now being
drafted.

Source: Associated Press, 3/28/95; Reuters, 3/27/95; Reuters,
3/25/95