MOSCOW, January 22. /TASS/. The development of modern reproductive technologies should not destroy the holy miracle of motherhood, Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia Kirill declared, speaking in the framework of a Christmas Reading debate at the State Duma on Thursday.

"Our moral principles cannot put up with the permission of surrogate maternity which turns a woman into an object of a commercial deal and distorts the very idea of maternity, the sacredness and holiness of these relations."

"People who cannot have children should think of adoption. All our people used to do that; they adopted orphans and brought them up," he said. "One cannot take advantage of scientific achievements, joking at the Lord's plans on man," he said.

The patriarch reminded of a previous attempt to reverse the flow of Siberian rivers. "Clever people had warned then that one cannot play such tricks on nature," he said.