title: Invited commentary on 'Robert G Edwards and the Roman Catholic Church'.
abstract: In this issue of Reproductive BioMedicine Online, Benagiano, Carrara and Filippi have produced a clearly written and comprehensive account of why the Roman Catholic Church has not welcomed the award of the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine to Dr Robert G Edwards for the development of human IVF. I commend the article for its clarity and lucidity but attempt to point out some areas where disagreement even with its nuanced opposition to IVF may be legitimate. I try to make some simple comments that explain why this is so and I suggest some areas to which contemporary theology and philosophy can commit itself. But it is good to see even a nuanced response to the work of Robert G Edwards rather than a blanket condemnation.
authors.forename: Ivan Francis
authors.initials: IF
authors.lastname: Head
mesh_terms: D033421:Beginning of Human Life; D002410:Catholicism; D005307:Fertilization in Vitro / Q000941:ethics*; D006801:Humans; D012068:Religion and Medicine