.- Upon
concluding its 86th Plenary Assembly, Spain’s Catholic Bishops’
Conference issued a powerful document condemning a new law on assisted
human reproduction that promotes cloning and genetic engineering.
In the
statement, which was presented to the media by Conference spokesman
Father Juan Antonio Martinez Camino, the bishops called the creation of
human beings in laboratories a “practice that clashes with the dignity
of the person and brings with it numerous abuses and attacks against
unborn human life, that is, against children.”
While he praised
the advances of science and technology, Bishop Ricardo Blazquez,
president of the Conference, said “that which is scientifically and
technologically possible” should also conform to an “ethic that
respects human dignity.”
Each human
being, the bishops said, has absolute value and should never be treated
as objects or means to an end. “The dignity of the human being
demands that children be procreated, not produced,” they emphasized.
Addressing the
use of the term “pre-embryo,” which in the new Spanish law refers to an
embryo that is less than 14 days old, the bishops noted that
fertilization results in the creation of a unique organism that is
distinct from both father and mother, and that “where there is a living
human body, there is a human person, and therefore, inviolable human
dignity.”
“There is no scientific or philosophical basis” for the concept of “pre-embryo,” they stated.
The bishops also
noted that the new law puts no limits on the creation of embryos in
laboratories and that it would allow “the use of frozen embryos for
research or even industrial purposes.” In fact, they warned, “the
embryo is considered mere biological material, a mere collection of
cells without human dignity.”
“Only the
(embryos) that are eventually found to be healthy are transferred or
frozen,” the bishops continued. “That is, the sick embryos are chosen
for death and the healthy ones for life or for freezing:
eugenics.”
The bishops also
warned that by approving therapeutic human cloning, the new law, “like
it or not,” would be opening the door to reproductive cloning.
Spanish bishops issue statement condemning law on assisted human reproduction
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