Turkeys top religious affairs body has said that IVF treatments are unacceptable as the process contains elements of adultery.
According to local Hurriyet Daily News, The Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) released a statement saying that in vitro fertilization between unmarried individuals offends humane feelings.
The council, which was established in 1924, said that IVF was only religiously permissible if the sperm and ovum fertilized belong to a married couple and if the ovum remains in the wifes womb, rather than inside a strangers womb.
IVF is a process by which an egg is fertilized by sperm outside a womans body.
According to the newspaper, the statement added: An in vitro fertilization process that starts and finalizes between individuals who not de facto married is religiously not acceptable as it offends humane feelings and contains elements of adultery.