Hugely criticised passage on in-vitro removed from controversial high-school textbook

The fragment from the handbook for the newly created high-school subject called "History and the Present" (Historia i Teraźniejszość, abbreviated as HiT) about "producing" and "breeding" people has sparked controversy and received plenty of severe criticism. Biały Kruk publishing house, which published the textbook, said in a statement issued on Monday it had decided together with the author to remove the contested passage.

The publishing house said in the statement that recent information shown in the media "are marked with bias and step far outside the boundaries of substantive discussion or free exchange of beliefs". "They employ a well-known manipulation technique, in which pretend concern is supported by exaggerated argumentation based on ficticious statements or fragmentary quotes taken out of context. These messages are meant to discredit the content and the author of the textbook, which deals with topics such as the "Cursed Soldiers", or the servile attitude of PRL (Polish People's Republic) towards the Soviet Union," Biały Kruk said in the statement.

According to the statement, two fragments of the textbook "which allegedly are to pertain to children born through the in-vitro method" had gained particular attention. "Not even once does the word 'in-vitro' appear in the whole book" - the statement added.

"Not accepting the aforementioned criticism and wrongful interpretation, but at the same time taking the common good into consideration, the will to defuse tensions and the possibility of conflictless using of the textbook, we have decided together with the author to remove the disputed fragment from the textbook," the publishing house said.

The textbook written by Prof. Wojciech Roszkowski has sparked plenty of controversy. Recently, a passage from the chapter on fertility and family planning has faced particularly severe criticism.

"Along with medical advances and the offensive of gender ideology, the 21st century has brought further decay of the instutution of family. Currently promoted inclusive model of family assumes forming arbitrary groups of people, often of the same sex, who will bring children to the world in separation from the natural union of man and woman, preferably in a laboratory," Prof. Roszkowski wrote.

"Increasingly refined methods of separating sex from love and fertility lead to treating the sphere of sex as entertainment, and the sphere of fertility as production of humans or, as one might say, breeding. This leads to a fundamental question: who will love children produced this way? A state which takes this kind of 'production' under its wings?" - we read.

Opposition politicians, activists, as well as teachers and school directors have spared criticism of the controversial fragment, in which they see a clear reference to the IVF method. They also remind teachers that they are not duty-bound to use the handbook, but only to carry out the curriculum of the subject.

The very core curriculum has faced criticism from historians from the University of Warsaw and Polish Academy of Sciences.

And yet textbooks by Prof. Roszkowski have been already printed out.