Medically Assisted Reproduction: an illustration of the two faces of medicine in the 20th century

This article, written by Marc Andronikof, chief of clinical medicine, examines medically assisted reproduction (MAR) through the lens of a critical study combining medical analysis and ethical reflection. The author first presents the main techniques — IVF, GIFT, ICSI — along with their statistical outcomes, before highlighting the paradoxes they generate: implicit eugenics, the undefined legal status of the embryo, the instrumentalization of the human body, and the confusion of regulatory bodies. He argues that the scientific community is incapable of producing an authentic ethics, with "bioethics" being reduced to mere technical compliance. The theological contribution of the article lies in its call to Orthodox Christians to recognize the fundamental incompatibility between these practices and the Christian vision of the human person, while proposing to approach the mystery of the embryo from a sacramental perspective rather than a metaphysical or legal one.