'Deformation of humanity’

Press, 16 March 1982, Page 5

'Deformation of humanity’

PA Auckland The production of test-tube babies is a "deformation of humanity" according to the Catholic’ Bishop of Auckland, the Most Rev. John Mackey. Bishop Mackey said he objected to test-tube babies on moral grounds. The Church, he said, had no official stand, but he warned that technology could rob society of humanness. The application of technology to morality was especially pertinent to the question of 'test-tube babies. He questioned whether it was moral to do everything technologically possible in the area of the' reproduction of human life. “My own opinion is that it is not morally permissible," he said. “I consider it (the produc-

tion of test-tube babies) a deformation of our humanness. There are limits to the application of technology to both our environment and ourselves." An arrogant disregard for ecology, he said, would bring its own retribution. He asked that those who pushed out the frontiers of applied technology should always exercise both prudence and reverence. Bishop Mackey said he believed that many human problems should be solved not by technology but by heightening the human awareness of the necessity to limit our own desire. Test-tube babies, he said, could open the way to procedures that could “imperil the freedom and the dignity of our future."