The Vatican vs. Gertrude Stein (Part XIX)

THE VATICAN: The Church holds that it is ethically unacceptable to dissociate procreation from the integrally personal context of the conjugal act: human procreation is a personal act of a husband and wife, which is not capable of substitution. The blithe acceptance of the enormous number of abortions involved in the process of in vitro fertilization vividly illustrates how the replacement of the conjugal act by a technical procedure -- in addition to being in contradiction with the respect that is due to procreation as something that cannot be reduced to mere reproduction -- leads to a weakening of the respect owed to every human being. Recognition of such respect is, on the other hand, promoted by the intimacy of husband and wife nourished by married love.

GERTRUDE STEIN: There is no pope.