ACI Prensa Staff, Sep 13, 2023 / 16:30 pm
The Commission of the Episcopal Conferences of the European Union (COMECE) and the Commissariat of the German Bishops-Catholic Office in Berlin on Sept. 12 published a joint statement expressing their “deep concern” about a new draft bill that changes the position of the European Council and Parliament on the substances of human origin (SoHO) regulation.
The bishops said that the bill, with the transactional amendments to the regulation, “will unequivocally set the course of the future discussion regarding prenatal human life in European transplantation and pharmaceutical law” and noted that “it will influence the ongoing discussion on strengthening the EU Health Union and will raise numerous ethical and constitutional conflict issues in the EU member states.”
The bishops stated that “as the Catholic Church we are convinced, with many others and for many reasons, that human life from the beginning, including unborn life, possesses its own dignity, right, and independent right of protection” and therefore it is their intention to draw attention to the consequences of the new SoHO regulation.
Specifically, the document emphasizes the danger of expanding the definition of the term “human substance,” since it could include human embryos and fetuses.