THE AD-HOC committee of the Catholic Women's League, set up to discuss the Warnock Committev Report, last week issued a' detailed statement rejecting all experimentation on embryos, even up to the fourteenth day.
"As IVF in the present state of knowledge does not conform to the traditional teaching of the Catholic Church, many Catholics find it unacceptable," said the committee.
"However, as it is becoming an established procedure, we would make the following provisos. We reject 1VF except within marriage, where we recommend the minimum use of embryos, to achieve only one
pregnancy. We would limit the freezing and storage of embryos to six months, solely to enable implantation at the most advantageous time, to achieve that particular pregnancy. We reject the commercial traffic in embryos."
At the same time, the committee welcomed the organisation of a licensing body and suggested that its personnel, carefully selected in consultation with Baroness Warnock, should include lay members — Christian and non-Christian — as well as medical and scientific experts.
The committee also welcomed the report's suggestion that licensing controls should be
strong enough for doctors who contravene them to be dealt with by the General Medical Council and for drug and pharmaceutical companies breaking the regulations to be severely fined.
The Report's suggestion that gynaecological and infertility clinics be separate was endorsed by the committee, which recommended that there should be more financial help for the treatment of infertility by other methods, including natural family planning.
"We understand that cost is a problem, here, as NHS is already overburdened, and suggest that priorities be examined," the committee said,