Australian bishop warns against babies becoming ‘consumer products’

Sydney, Australia, Sep 12, 2005 / 22:00 pm

Bishop Anthony Fisher warned that babies could become “consumer products” within 10 years due to the mentality and technologies being promoted by the contraceptive and IVF industries, reported Cathnet Australia.

The auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Sydney was responding to comments by Stanford University emeritus professor Carl Djerassi. Djerassi designed the first oral contraceptive and was in Australia last week on a visit funded by the federal education body Australia Science Innovations.

Djerassi said human reproduction, which would be completely controlled by reproductive technologies and not dependent on sexual intercourse, might be as little as 10 years away.

He said he believes women would be "happy" to be sterilized after having their eggs frozen, knowing that they can be thawed, fertilized and implanted when they choose to have a child.

He also rejected the claim that the decline in fertility in many countries was due to the contraceptive pill.

Bishop Fisher said Djerassi’s prediction about a world where sexual intercourse is not related to the reproduction of children is possible because it is in the best interests of contraceptive and IVF industries.

"These entrepreneurs have been very successful in getting us to adopt a consumer mentality towards the body, sexuality and children," he said.

"The contraceptive manufacturers have taught people not to love their bodies, life and children but rather to fear their fertility, to withhold it even from their spouses, to cauterize it temporarily or permanently," the bishop reportedly said.