Shun IVF, sex acceptable way to conceive: Pope

London: Shun 'arrogant' artificial fertilisation treatment; sex is the 'only acceptable' way to conceive - that's Pope Benedict's message to infertile

couples across the world.

According to the Pontiff, artificial methods of getting pregnant, like the in-vitro fertilisation (IVF), were simply "arrogance" and matrimony was the "only place worthy of the call to existence of a new human being".

Speaking at the end of a three-day Vatican conference on infertility in Rome yesterday, the Pope reiterated Vatican's stance against artificial procreation and urged infertile couples to refrain from trying to conceive through any method other than conjugal relations.

"The human and Christian dignity of procreation, in fact, doesn't consist in a 'product', but in its link to the conjugal act, an expression of the love of the spouses of their union, not only biological but also spiritual," the 'Daily Mail' quoted Pope Benedict XVI as saying.

He also told the specialists in his audience to resist "the fascination of the technology of artificial fertility', warning against "easy income, or even worse, the arrogance of taking the place of the Creator".

He suggested that this was the attitude that underlies the field of artificial procreation. The emphasis on science and "the logic of profit seem today to dominate the field of infertility and human procreation", the Pope said.

Sperm or egg donation and methods such as IVF are banned for members of the Catholic church. But the Pope added that the Church encourages medical research into infertility.