Third-party assisted reproduction is adultery, says Church
4/10/13
THE CHURCH of Cyprus considers the use of eggs and sperm from third parties in assisted reproduction as adultery, MPs heard yesterday.
Paphos Metropolitan Georgios said the Church rejected the notion of using surrogate mothers because they could bond emotionally with the baby and refuse to hand them over to the real parents.
The Church also rejected fertilising more eggs than those implanted in the uterus because letting the others die was tantamount to murder.
The metropolitan also expressed disagreement with freezing eggs with a view to implanting them at a later stage. “What would happen if the mother died?” he said.
“The Church does not accept the use by the wife of the frozen sperm of the husband who has since died either,” Georgios said, “because the child will be born fatherless and will suffer negative psychological effects.”
Committee chairman, DISY MP, Costas Constantinou, said the metropolitan had expressed views “based on religion, the Holy Bible and statutes followed by the Church.”
“We may disagree, we may agree on some points (but) we were obliged to listen and that is what we did,” Constantinou said.
Constantinou slammed the ministry for dragging its feet in preparing legislation to regulate the matter, despite discussions dating back to 2005.
“We gave a last chance until November 15. This cannot go on,” he said.
