LONDON, Aug. 29 (CWNews.com/LSN.ca)

    The lucrative nature of the reproductive technology industry has produced an environment which discourages doctors from looking into ways to cure infertility or sterility, according to British Professor Robert Winston, "father of the test-tube baby" and a pioneer in artificial insemination.

    "Each operation is carried out outside the National Health Service and costs more than $3,000," Winston told Zenit news service. He added that "today these techniques are used without studying their need and usefulness for a couple with infertility problems."

    Based on Winston's comments, the Italian newspaper Avvenire conducted its own study, contacting Claudio Brigante, director of the Physiopathology of Reproduction Center of Milan's St. Raphael Hospital, who said, "it is often easier to decide on artificial insemination, especially when the couple themselves ask for it, and it is difficult for the doctors to deny their request. A certain robotic nature has been created in patients and doctors."

    Despite the fact that reproductive technologies produce human babies, many of whom have to be later destroyed, little thought seems to be given today in many medical circles to the "pro-life" alternatives that may be available to some people and which may be a more responsible alternative for some families. Professor Salvatore Mancuso, director of the Gynecology Institute of the Catholic University of Rome told Avvenire that "Professor Winston's own research has proved that microsurgery to reconstruct the fallopian tubes sometimes leads to far better results than would be possible with artificial insemination."

    A British newspaper columnist recently revealed that 763,509 embryos were generated by IVF treatment between 1991 and 1998. Of these, 184,000 were stored, 48,000 were used in research, and 238,000 were simply destroyed, reported the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children last week in response to Winston's comments.

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