The French Parliament is debating the revision of the law on bioethics (cf. the report on p. 7), and the French dailies devote ample coverage to the questions connected with the more recent advances in this field, at the centre of the new bill being debated in the national Assembly. “Parliament is about to authorize research on the embryo”, is the headline carried by Le Monde of 15/1, which explains that the revision of the law of 1994, initially planned in 1999, “is taking place in a context profoundly transformed by the progress of scientific research, particularly in the field of genetics”. The government text of the bill, the French daily points out in particular, “prohibits any kind of cloning, including cloning for therapeutic purposes. In compensation, it authorizes research on surplus human embryos, currently frozen”. This authorization, emphasizes Le Monde, “is called for by the scientific community, and ought to permit the progress of research on stem cells, crucial for the development of treatments against certain incurable diseases”. But obstacles are not lacking: “The authorization of the research on surplus embryos comments Jean-Yves Nau ought to be subjected to the liveliest discussions within the national Assembly. We need to come to terms with the fact that the new prospects of regenerative medicine have brutally enlarged the scientific and therapeutic use of these embryos”. La Croix of 15/1 dedicates an eight-page “dossier” to “All you need to know about the law on bioethics”, as the title of the Catholic daily puts it. Dominique Quinio, in his editorial, also reflects on the delicate questions posed by the possible use of surplus embryos for research. The author of the article sums up the “moral dilemma” as follows: “Is it permissible, in the name of an anticipated good for a human person, to ‘use’ these human embryos as material? Many researchers and physicians are tempted to reply in the affirmative, because these developments are really promising. Many of the possible beneficiaries of the discoveries, and, not least, many in the economic world, seeing that the financial prospects are huge, are also in favour. Almost alone, the Catholic Church says no, rejecting such a reduction of human embryos to research material. It does so in the name of the dignity of human life from the very moment of conception. The implication of the new bill is that we will have some embryos destined to live and some embryos destined to be placed at the service of other living human beings. A political challenge, but also a challenge of humanity”. The German press adopts a critical attitude to the Italian political situation. “ The head“, that’s the title of the article in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of 16/1 on prime minister Berlusconi and his capacity to keep Italy’s centre right united. According to Heinz-Joachim Fischer,” without him the centre right would become utterly irrelevant“. The real problem for Italy’s European partners is allegedly the premier himself, “ but the head of the Italian government is called Silvio Berlusconi and opinions are divided about him“, even though, as the author points out, “criticism of him often oversteps the limit“, as in the case of the pronouncements of Bossi, that are exploited to demonstrate the “ iniquity of the government“. “Tragedy on the Tiber”, by contrast, is the title of the article of Dirk Koch and Hans-Jürgen Schlamp that the Spiegel of 14/1 dedicates to the same question, assuming a highly critical position and pointing out “Europe’s disappointment about the resignation of the Italian foreign minister”. “The bishops and terrorism“: the question is addressed by the Spanish daily ABC of 10/1 referring to a book recently published by José Francisco Montanaro on “ The Church in response to the terrorism of Eta“. The book gathers together over 500 documents of the Holy See, of the Spanish Episcopal Conference, of individual bishops and of other church bodies. “ The aim of this book – says Fernando Sebastián, archbishop of Pamplona – is to serve justice, truth and peace as regards the most serious and painful problem of our contemporary history… perhaps no other institution has condemned terrorism in so constant and coherent a fashion as has the Catholic Church“. The same theme is also tackled by El Mundo of 14/1, which in an article by Justino Sinova considers that the book is useful as an historical memory because it “ describes the central attitude of the Church, an attitude of condemnation and the search for reconciliation”.
