Following the birth of Ireland's first test tube baby at Saint James's Hospital, a Catholic Bishops Commission has described the technique as de-humanising.
Catholic bishops are looking for a more "human approach" to procreation. The Bishops' Commission did however welcome the guidelines approved by The Irish Medical Council which were drawn up by the Institute of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists to exclude the discarding of embryos and the use of embryos for research.
Commenting on the outcome of the Catholic Bishops Commission, Bishop Donal Murray says
I would hope it would influence doctors and nurses and people in general to reflect and to ask whether this particular way of using knowledge and technology is as human as possible.
An RTÉ News report by George Devlin broadcast on 3 February 1986.
