The nightmare has become a reality” “

“The clone of an embryo – the prospect, namely, of a human being generated by selection, used for removing stem cells and then eliminated – is a grave offence to the dignity of man, to be utterly condemned”. With these words the German Episcopal Conference comments on the experiment of producing a human embryo recently announced by the American company Advanced Cell Technology. “Life – says the document issued by the German bishops – can only be used as a means to an end. This exploitation is intolerable and conflicts with the biblical image of man. Even the presumed ‘good’ end of such experiments, the successful healing of man, cannot be achieved at the price of the killing of human embryos.” The consequences that this experiment may bring with it are – say the bishops – of the utmost gravity: “The threshold towards a completely mistaken use of man has been crossed”. And this use may also cause, “in time, consequences for the protection of human life in other fields, such as that of the end of life.” On the other hand, the bishops point out, “a society is always measured by the yardstick of its conduct to human life in its most vulnerable phases” and “the diminution of respect for the sacredness of life, of the creation and of God, who created man in his image, will lead to grave consequences”. No one may henceforth claim, “in response to the progress of erroneous developments, that this had not been the intention”. The German Episcopal Conference thus reiterates its “firm opposition to any mistaken destination of human life in all its phases” and reminds “everyone responsible in the fields of research, medicine and politics of their responsibilities for the protection of life.” No less determined has been the reaction of the Federal Order of German physicians, which, through the mouthpiece of its president, Jorg-Dietrich Hoppe, has expressed its firm condemnation of experiments on human cloning. In its official position, with the title “The nightmare has become a reality”, we read: “The experiments of the American scientists on clones, now made public, are contrary to ethics and demonstrate an appalling contempt for human life”. The German physicians thus express the hope that remedial action be taken by the American legislator “to put an end to the research on man by private companies and to promulgate a far-reaching prohibition on cloning”. The first cloned human embryo is far from being a “milestone”, as the American researchers would have us believe, but “a nightmare, which has now become a reality”. Just at this time it is clear how important it is to maintain unaltered the severe German law on human embryos and research on them”, continued Hoppe. “The value of that law is now proved” since “it considers the fecundated egg cell, that is capable of evolving into human life, as worthy of protection. And that protection cannot be placed in question. These fundamental concepts of the law on the protection of the embryo must be safeguarded.” In view of what has happened in the USA, in Hoppe’s opinion, the importance of an international convention prohibiting the cloning of human embryos becomes all the more clear. In many countries there is utterly no juridical regulation that protects the embryo. So what is hoped for is “a minimum standard, like that fixed by the Convention of human rights of the Council of Europe, that may prevent experiments like that conducted in the USA also in countries with a lower level of safeguard”. Patrizia Collesi