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Skriven 2006-02-27 23:21:44 av Marc Lewis (1:396/45)
Ärende: Vatican Information Service (Press Release)
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                The following press release is Copyrighted by the
                          Vatican Information Service.
                ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
                               VIS-Press releases

CONGRESS OF THE ACADEMY FOR LIFE ON THE HUMAN EMBRYO

VATICAN CITY, FEB 24, 2006 (VIS) - In the Holy See Press Office at midday
today, a conference took place to present an international congress on "the
human embryo prior to implantation, scientific aspects and bioethical
considerations." The congress, which is being held to mark the 12th general
assembly of the Pontifical Academy for Life, is due to take place in the
Vatican's New Synod Hall on February 27 and 28.

Participating in today's press conference were Bishop Elio Sgreccia, president
of the Pontifical Academy for Life; Adriano Bompiani, gynecologist and director
of the International Scientific Institute of Rome's Sacred Heart Catholic
University; Fr. Kevin T. Fitzgerald, associate professor of genetics at the
oncological department of Georgetown University, Washington, U.S.A.; and Bishop
Willem Jacobus Eijk of Groningen, Netherlands, moral theologian, expert on
bioethics and doctor.

"In order to attribute a 'juridical status' to the embryo," said Adriano
Bompiani, "it is necessary to 'understand' its nature." And such understanding,
he added, must be based on ontological study.

"Today, it is not enough to examine the embryo under the microscope," he went
on. Rather, it is necessary "to use all available means" from the fields of
genetics, morphology, biochemistry and molecular biology.

In "recognizing" the embryo, Bompiani continued, "we come up against the
concepts of human life, human being, human individual, and person. Reflection
on these concepts is, obviously, the aim of ontological study. However, in my
opinion, this should be undertaken only after having described and understood
what happens in the few hours following the encounter between a living human
ovum and a spermatozoon." From a rational standpoint, he concluded, the origin
of a new human being lies "in the meeting between a spermatozoon and an ovum of
the same species."

For his part, Bishop Willem Jacobus Eijk spoke of the extrinsic and intrinsic
criteria for attributing a moral status to the human embryo, recalling how in
the second half of the 1960s "the idea arose that the status of the human being
and the personality of an individual emerge at the moment of nidation, because
this implicates the beginning of a close relationship with the mother."
However, the bishop went on, "such a relationship already comes about in the
fusion of the spermatozoon and the ovum as the fruit of a sexual relationship
between the parents. Moreover, even before implantation, the embryo receives
the necessary nutrients and oxygen for growth from the mother."

Another extrinsic criterion holds that "the embryo becomes a human individual
when recognized as such by positive law. In our pluralistic society, the only
possible solution to the controversy over the status of the human embryo is,
according to many people, that such status be defined by democratic consensus.
However, the truth, even that regarding the status of the embryo, cannot be
established by a statistical survey."

Bishop Eijk went on: "A third extrinsic criterion makes the status of the
embryo depend on the choice of others to give the embryo created by 'in vitro'
fertilization the possibility of further development," transplanting it to the
uterus. "The problem is that the status of the embryo, understood in this way,
... depends on the choice of others, especially researchers and parents."

Given that extrinsic criteria "are inadequate for establishing the moral status
of the embryo, it is necessary," the bishop said, "to use intrinsic criteria in
order to achieve an objective judgement on the respect due to the embryo." In
the first place, it must be recognized that "the embryo, even in the
pre-nidation phase, is a being with its own life separate from that of the
mother, a human being from a biological point of view, an individual, and a
being with an intrinsic destiny to become a human person."

Bishop Eijk then recalled how in his Encyclical "Evangelium vitae," John Paul
II affirms that modern science can offer "a valuable indication for discerning
by the use of reason a personal presence at the moment of the first appearance
of a human life." Aristotle's theory of animation "was based upon his mistaken
understanding of the embryo," said the bishop, while "modern anthropological
theories which attribute the status of human person to an embryo only at the
moment of self-awareness (at the end of pregnancy), or even at that of manifest
rational consciousness (some time after birth), are characterized by a profound
dualism incapable of explaining the human being as a substantial unity."

He concluded: "Current embryological and genetic knowledge provides precious
indications that the embryo has a specific identity as a human person." That
identity "is determined fundamentally, though not alone, by the human genome,
which is present and active at conception. Although it is impossible to
demonstrate empirically a personal presence from conception, philosophical
reflection on the bio-anthropological status of the human embryo points to an
incongruity between [the idea of] indirect or gradual humanization and the
vision of a human individual as a substantial unity of spirit and body."
OP/HUMAN EMBRYO/ACAD-V VIS 060224 (840)

SUMMARY

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