The challenges of biomedicine and genetic techniques are at the centre of a pastoral letter “Life in the Upper Rhine”, issued jointly by the bishops of Basel, Fribourg and Strasbourg, the basin of the Upper Rhine, and presented in Basel on 8 April. “The dignity of human life from conception to death must be respected before any kind of consideration of economic utility or benefit”, maintain the bishops. The belonging to a common territory which, despite comprising cities of three different countries (France, Switzerland and Germany), shares the same social fabric and the presence of large industrial concentrations (pharmaceutical in Basel) and important institutions (the European Parliament in Strasbourg and the German Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe), makes it useful for the dioceses of the territory to cooperate. The bishops point out: “We’ve been meeting each other regularly for the last twenty years for an exchange of experiences, in which we discuss not only the problems of the life of the Church but also the challenges faced by contemporary society”. As regards the challenges of genetic techniques, the document affirms that “anyone who decides to dispose of the life of man attacks the very foundations of our common life in society”.
