Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Aug 31, 2004 / 22:00 pm
The Pastoral Committee of the Bishops Conference of Brazil published a statement this week calling on legislators to protect the life of human embryos and reject a proposed law that would allow them to be used for research.
Referring to the bill that deals with both genetically modified foods and research on human embryos, the bishops recalled that advances in science “demand responsible reflection upon the ethical conflicts which can arise in the field of science.”
They point out that in a country which suffers from “social development problems” such as hunger and common diseases, “it is unacceptable that two important issues of national interest” be considered together.
“Both the issue of genetic modification and that of human embryos demand scientific knowledge in order to evaluate their ethical implications. Voting simultaneously on genetically modified foods and human embryos” is an “unacceptable” way of handing such important issues.