Pope links procreation to conjugal act

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VATICAN CITY, Feb. 25 (UPI) -- Pope Benedict XVI emphasized the Catholic Church's stand against in vitro fertilization Saturday in a speech at the Vatican.

The pope addressed the Pontifical Academy for Life at the end of a weeklong conference on infertility treatments and research, Vatican Radio reported. Benedict said the church encourages medical research and touched on the "suffering" of infertile couples.

But he said technology has its limits.

"The human and Christian dignity of procreation consists not in a 'product' but in its connection with the conjugal act, an expression of love of the spouses, their union which is not only biological but also spiritual," Benedict added.

The pope suggested researchers are ignoring possible avenues for infertility treatment to focus on artificial insemination and in vitro fertilization.

"Scientism and the logic of profit seem to dominate the field of infertility and human procreation, to the point of limiting many other areas of research," he said.