|PIC1|The head of the world's 1.1 billion Roman Catholics has condemned artificial insemination and other medical tests, in a speech to the Pontifical Academy for Life.

Making the Vatican's stance clear, Pope Benedict XVI said, "In developed countries, there is a growing interest for the most sophisticated biotechnological research to introduce subtle and extensive eugenics methods in the obsessive search for the 'perfect child'."

However, he said that the right to life was increasingly being attacked in the secular world. In particular, he highlighted pressures to legalise abortions in Latin America, as well as attempts to legalise euthanasia in many of the world's richest countries.

The Pope also used his address to comment on a new bill approved this month by the Italian government which is proposing granting rights to unwed couples, as well as homosexual partners.

Specifically Pope Benedict spoke out against civil unions as an alternative to marriage.

The controversial Italian bill now looks a much stronger proposition, as its supporters attempt to turn it into law. The bill was recently dropped from a government program submitted by Romano Prodi to his allies to allow him to stay on as prime minister and end the latest political crisis, according to Reuters.