Russian Orthodox Church
The new head of the Patriarchal Commission on Family Issues, Protection of Motherhood and Childhood, priest Feodor Lukyanov, appointed to this position by decision of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church on August 25 of this year, gave an exclusive interview to RIA Novosti (published in abbreviation).
- Please explain your recent statement that the state should remove the IVF procedure from the compulsory health insurance system - why?
— I don’t know, thanks to what magical arguments, IVF funding began to be carried out in Russia at the expense of the compulsory health insurance fund - that is, at the expense of you and me, citizens of Russia, funds.
Some medical propagandists of IVF have gone so far as to offer this method almost as a tool for demographic policy and increasing the birth rate. I will answer with a quote from the chief pediatrician of Russia: “Immediately invest money in the treatment of disabled children,” whose number in our country is approaching a million (according to the Union of Pediatricians of Russia). I will add that pregnancy after IVF is a high-risk pregnancy, in which the risk of adverse perinatal outcomes is significantly increased, and in fact the origins of childhood disability in approximately 50% of cases lie in the perinatal period.
In other words, by encouraging IVF, we get sick mothers, sick children with high risks of infertility, we get sick generations increasingly dependent on assisted reproductive technologies.
Experts of the Patriarchal Commission believe that the reliance on the widespread use of IVF techniques as an instrument of state demographic policy is not justified, causes serious damage to the interests of Russia and can, in the future, significantly reduce the country’s defense potential. Today, IVF clinics are commercial structures that exist at our expense. And when the laws of commerce take precedence in medicine, the health of patients takes a back seat. I hope our President will initiate a review of this policy, which is leading to the destruction of the reproductive potential of our people.
— You mentioned surrogacy, the issue of limiting which in Russia has recently begun to be discussed again. What is your opinion on this practice?
— Surrogacy is a completely immoral and unacceptable practice for a believer. This is an immoral business, hiding behind supposedly helping the infertile. This practice is profit-oriented and mainly export-oriented.
But surrogacy only worsens the demographic situation. After all, in fact, women are actually selling their health, and if they give birth to a “low-quality” child, the “client” often refuses, and the disabled child remains in the care of the mother... Surrogacy causes irreparable damage to women’s health, placing the burden of treatment on all possible consequences for women, acting as surrogate mothers, funded by the domestic budget.
The practice of surrogacy is prohibited in many countries of the world (for example, in Germany, Italy, China), contradicts the policy of the President of the Russian Federation to improve reproductive health and violates the basic rights of the child to live in his family of origin.
The separation of biological and social motherhood can lead to the problem of the child's identity and inevitable deep psychological conflicts.
— Does the “Fundamentals of Social Concept” of the Russian Orthodox Church give an unambiguous assessment of this phenomenon?
- Yes. In the “Fundamentals...” it is directly written about surrogacy: it is “unnatural and morally unacceptable even in cases when it is carried out on a non-commercial basis”, since “it involves the destruction of the deep emotional and spiritual closeness established between the mother and the baby already during pregnancy."
Already this year we have witnessed a criminal chronicle: the discovery of two “surrogate mother farms” - apartments with women who were used as “gestational couriers”, and in simple terms, using IVF methods, their bodies were used to “produce” children for sale . As a result, children were born (or died, as was the case in the first case in Odintsovo) for foreign citizens. There is trafficking in children and exploitation of women's bodies for commercial profit. A real and undisguised crime that should be absolutely prohibited.
By the way, where are our famous feminists and women's rights defenders? They only appear in the media when the Church is trying to limit the ability of women to harm themselves through voluntary (non-medical) abortion. It turns out that the Church and medicine are much more concerned about maternal health than these pseudo-defenders of women's rights working off foreign grants.
A criminal case has been opened against the organizers of these “surrogate farms” under the article “human trafficking.” The main public face of surrogacy in Russia, Mr. Svitnev, is on the federal wanted list. Isn’t it clear that such a practice is real child trafficking?
I completely agree with the words of Vice-Speaker of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation Irina Yarova that Russia cannot and should not be a country-incubator of surrogacy for foreign citizens. The Patriarchal Commission welcomes all steps taken by the legislative branch to limit and completely eliminate this vicious and detrimental practice for society.
— But in general: what are the main family problems today, why and how can the Church help solve them?
— The breakdown of families, the impoverishment of love and sacrifice in relationships, the perception in society of large families as an exception and not as the norm, an epidemic of abortions and pro-abortion thinking. These are crisis phenomena that society can overcome only together, as a whole, with the support of the voice of the Church of Christ as the conscience of society. This voice is not pleasant to everyone; it often sounds dissonant with the voice of “this world”, with its hedonistic, destructive attitudes for the individual. But that’s what conscience is for: to raise society from its knees bowed to passions and vices, to free it from slavery to sin and to remind a person of his Heavenly Fatherland.
— If the Patriarchal Commission was created specifically for this purpose, then what exactly has it achieved over the past years?
— Archpriest Dimitry Smirnov, who created the Commission, has done a lot in this field. Everyone knows the vivid statements of Father Dimitri. But not everyone knows that he created and supports several wonderful orphanages where children feel at home. It was under his leadership that in the late 80s a movement began in our country to protect the life of a child before birth.
Thanks to the efforts of the Orthodox community, a “week of silence” was introduced, mandatory psychological counseling for pregnant women in crisis, and the criteria for live births were changed. Millions of leaflets, thousands of social advertising design layouts, and educational materials have saved and are saving thousands of little lives.
The Patriarchal Commission was one of the first to advocate removing the hypocritical Law on Domestic Violence from the agenda. One of his goals was to deprive Russian parents of the right to be educators of their children.
Experts from the Commission participated in the preparation of the Concept of the State Family Policy of Russia and the Strategy for the Development of Education in the Russian Federation. Thanks to this work, the documents reflected issues related to the protection of families and the rights of parents.
- Why are there so many divorces in our country? And what is the situation like in the Russian Orthodox Church, among its parishioners - are there stronger families there?
— Divorces are a consequence of the inability of one or two spouses to go beyond themselves, to love not their reflection in another person, but this person himself, the way God intended him to be. The wave of divorces means not only a crisis of faith in God, but also a crisis of faith in each other, a crisis of the ability for mutual sacrificial love.
This, of course, is facilitated by having few children, the cult of self-love and the eradication of the culture of self-control, which was organically present in traditional Russian Christian education.
Therefore, naturally, stronger and happier families are created by believers who are ready to fight for their happiness. But fight not with your neighbor, but with your own passions and vices. Undoubtedly, among religious people the percentage of happy marriages is much higher.
Forced isolation has left families on their own. In theory, this should only make the marriage bond stronger. And they got stronger, but not for everyone. The epidemic here is only a consequence, not a cause. On the Day of Love and Fidelity, let's figure out why the number of divorces may increase after quarantine?
— What do you see as your task as Chairman of the Commission? What new initiatives can we expect from the Church in the field of family protection?
“I see my task as ensuring that the activities of the Patriarchal Commission are more widely represented in the regions. Of particular importance today is the improvement of pastoral competence in such a border area between law and medicine as bioethics. For dioceses, we have a program of pastoral seminars on the most pressing bioethical issues that clergy, especially urban clergy, face in everyday practice. In particular, these are issues of IVF, buying and selling eggs, surrogacy and others.
In this regard, the Commission published the collection “Orthodoxy and Problems of Bioethics.” It was prepared jointly with the Church-Public Council on Biomedical Ethics, which includes authoritative experts in the field of medicine, law, and theology. This monograph can be widely used as a practical guide for pastoral practice. We are talking not only about methodological assistance to diocesan commissions, but also about cooperation with public organizations.
Particular attention in the work of the Commission will also be paid to interaction with parliamentarians on bills in the field of family relations, motherhood and childhood. We will develop proposals to support fatherhood, improve the situation of women and large families, strengthen the institution of the family, stimulate the birth rate and prevent abortions.
By the way, speaking of cooperation with the state, we have a wonderful project “Formation in the school and student environment of a positive perception of basic family values: birth, marriage and large families.” This is a series of three-day educational events for high school and university students. So we invite regional administrations and all interested departments to cooperate.
RIA Novosti/ Patriarchia.ru
Lukyanov named the cause of death of Archpriest Dimitry Smirnov
Dimitry Smirnov, Photo: Pravda Komsomolskaya/globallookpress.com Chairman of the Patriarchal Commission on Family Issues, Protection of Motherhood and Children Fyodor Lukyanov said that the cause of death of Archpriest Dimitry Smirnov was a long-standing chronic illness.
Lukyanov noted that Smirnov’s death is not related to the novel coronavirus infection he suffered in May. It is known that the clergyman had a hard time suffering from COVID-19; he was connected to a ventilator in intensive care. After discharge, he underwent a rehabilitation period, but was hospitalized in September due to complications.
Smirnov’s death became known on the morning of October 21. He died at the age of 69.
Earlier, religious scholar Roman Lunkin named the main quality of an archpriest.
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