“A major defeat and a desolating signal for the protection of embryos in Europe, even for the defence of human rights”: that is the judgement of the German Bishops’ Conference on the recent decision of the European Parliament to fund research on human embryos. The German bishops forcefully underline the fact that “research on human embryonal stem cells presupposes the killing of human life”. “Human embryos have a right to life from the moment of conception. Therefore, they are covered by the need to protect human dignity and cannot become an object of research. The funding of this type of research is in any case in violation of German law”, says the statement, recalling that this was recently underlined by the parliamentary groups of the Bundestag that compose the present government of Angela Merkel. Apart from the joint declaration of the Bishops’ Conference, individual bishops, such as the Most Rev. Gebhard Fürst (Rottenburg-Stuttgart), have raised their voice against the decision of the European Parliament: “The majority of German citizens are opposed to research that uses embryos. The Church has always been against the use of embryos for research purposes and has always urged that research be promoted instead on adult stem cells”.
