Law on immigration, euthanasia and biotechnologies: these are the main issues discussed at the meeting of the Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK) in Bonn on 7 May. On the conclusion of the discussion, Hans Joachim Meyer, chairman of the ZdK, made various appeals to the German government on these issues. With regard to the current reform of the law on immigration, in the hope that the parties would reach “unanimous solutions”, Meyer recognized that the “changed situation in terms of security after the terrorist attacks in New York and Madrid has negatively influenced the consultations”. On euthanasia, Meyer expressed a “clear condemnation of the recent actions aimed at obtaining its legalization and, while positively evaluating the refusal to endorse the Marty Report in the debate at the Council of Europe, asked that “constant attention” be devoted to the question. The chairman of the ZdK lastly pronounced on biotechnologies and the granting of patents on human life, animals and plants: he urged the government “to do everything so that, also at the European level, legal constraints be examined such as to prevent the registration of patents on life”.
