Pope: marriage only place 'worthy' for conception

Pope Benedict XVI
Pope Benedict XVI attends a procession towards St. Sabina's church to celebrate the Ash Wednesday mass in Rome, Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2012.
AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia

Pope Benedict XVI has called on infertile couples to shun artificial procreation, saying such methods are a form of arrogance.

Benedict spoke Saturday at the end of a three-day Vatican conference on diagnosing and treating infertility. Reiterating Vatican teaching, he called marriage the only permissible place to conceive children.

Benedict also pressed a church ban against artificial procreation. He said infertile couples should resist resorting to any method to try to conceive other than sex between husband and wife.

He says the drive for profit as well as "arrogance" seem to dominate the field of infertility and warned against what he called the "fascination of artificial procreation technology."

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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