The bill on medically assisted procreation “was introduced in Parliament without sufficient public awareness-raising, given that it is a question of great importance and delicacy and of enormous ethical implications”, say the Portuguese bishops in their final communiqué issued at the end of their general Assembly held at Fatima from 14 to 17 November. Though recognizing the need for legislation in this area, the bishops feel it is their “duty to affirm that the embryo must be respected as a human being, and assured of protection and dignity, identity and integrity”. For this reason “no research that is destructive in aim and that prevents the development of this human being should be authorized”. During the assembly the president of the Portuguese Bishops’ Conference, Archbishop Jorge Ferriera da Costa Ortiga of Braga, spelt out the current challenges for Portuguese society: “Educating in the co-responsibility of everyone in the protection of the environment, so as to prevent tragedies like that of the forest fires [that devastated the country this summer]; enhancing local powers, fundamental for the harmonious and integral development of the inhabitants; and conceiving sex education in an integral vision of the affective dimension of the human being that involves all the formative agencies, and in particular the family”. The assembly also tackled some problems relating to the application of the Concordat, lamenting “the delay in the nomination of the representatives of the Portuguese Republic to the joint Commission prescribed by article 29 of the Concordat”.
