ECUMENISM" "
“Firm opposition” to the proposal to grant EU funds to research on human embryos, voted by the European Parliament on 19 November, was expressed by the Holy Synod of Greece on the eve of the Council of Ministers, which met in Brussels on 27 November to decide whether or not to ratify the proposal. “The Orthodox Church says a statement issued by the Church expresses her explicit opposition to the adoption of this policy, which is contrary to fundamental ethical principles and offensive to man created in God’s image. Moreover continues the document it breaches the guidelines specified by the European Commission itself on the funding of research on stem cells derived from human embryos and violates the serious ethical reservations invoked by a strong minority in Parliament, and expressed by an even stronger majority within civil society”. “The haste with which the proposal was voted on observed the Greek Church is indicative of a tendency to impose points of view rather that begin a dialogue, and this is confirmed by the inflexibility with which the decision to limit experiments created after 27 June 2002 (as planned in the sixth European framework programme for research) was rejected”. “Human life concludes the document begins from the moment of conception, and the more weak and defenceless a person is, the more that person has a need for care and legal protection. That’s why we are against any technique that implies the destruction of embryos, which is ethically unacceptable”.
