Switzerland, Austria, Italy

Switzerland: an unconditional “yes” “A total ‘yes’ to the dignity of every person”: that is the judgement expressed by Swiss bishops on the Instruction “Dignitas personae” on Certain Bioethical Questions recently issued by the Holy See’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. In a communiqué, the Swiss Bishops’ Conference emphasize that what is expressed in the document “is the fundamental principle of the Catholic attitude: an unconditional ‘yes’ to the dignity of each person. Each human being must be recognized the dignity that belongs to the human person from the moment of conception to natural death”. “The document published with the approval of Benedict XVI is of particular relevance in Switzerland today”, point out the bishops. For “the new federal law on medical research on human beings is now being discussed. The abolition of the current ban on pre-implant diagnosis (PID) is being called for by various sides. The Holy See’s document points out that in many sectors of reproductive medicine the dignity that is proper to each and every human being is clearly treated with contempt through the use and successive distribution of human embryos, which especially happens with PID. It expresses the hope that research would be conducted on adult stem cells instead, on condition that their removal causes no harm to the person”. “The new document of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith” conclude the Swiss bishops – “should be understood as a continuation of the Instruction ‘Donum Vitae’ of 1987″.Austria: unprejudiced debate”An important contribution to the protection of life”: that’s how Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, President of the Austrian Bishops’ Conference, summed up the new document on bioethics of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. In a communiqué issued in Vienna on 12 December, the Archbishop of Vienna emphasized that “the document gives added value to a constructive dialogue with the world of science”, pointing out that the Holy See’s “doctrine is aimed at expressing words of encouragement for and trust in a cultural outlook that sees in science an inestimable value for the good of life and the dignity of each person. The Church therefore regards scientific research with hope. She trusts that many Christians may dedicate themselves to the progress of biomedicine. Above all, scientific discoveries should also be placed at the disposal of poor countries, those that are most severely being penalized by diseases”. “Precisely thanks to this positive attitude to science, the document emphasizes that the freedom of science and of the individual researcher cannot ignore the fundamental good of the person, based on his/her human dignity. This human dignity is intrinsic to each and every human being, irrespective of age, race, sex, genetic endowment, disease or health”, recalled Cardinal Schönborn. “The document ‘Dignitas Personae’ emphasizes in its conclusions that the Church is conscious of the fact that her own doctrine is often criticized because it contains too many prohibitions. But the opposite is true”, he declared. “The Church must dedicate herself to the protection of life, also because history shows that the capacities that God has entrusted to man are not always used for the service of man. Often it is the weakest and most defenceless that have to pay their price. Therefore” – concluded Schönborn – on the occasion of the publication of this document – “I hope for a constructive dialogue with science and society, as well as an unprejudiced discussion on the document presented. I say so in the hope that even the person who thinks in a purely scientific way may ponder both sides of the question and come to accept the positive intention of the Church’s doctrine on the protection of life”. Italy: for those seeking the truth “Once again, the centrality of the question of man is grasped. And this question must become extremely concrete: it’s not enough to call for the person to be respected. This respect needs to be justified. It needs to be demonstrated with arguments, in which faith and reason dialogue together as best they can, to show what the person is, what its characteristics are and how this dignity should be recognized to each human individual. This especially goes for the embryo, which is the human being in its initial phase of development”, says theologian Marco Doldi in a statement published on SIR ( Servizio Informazione Religiosa ), the press agency of Italian diocesan weeklies promoted by the Italian Bishops’ Conference. “The reality of the human being, before and after birth, and throughout the course of life, permits us to neither to assume a change in that person’s nature, nor to assert a different ethical consideration – insists Doldi -, because that person already possesses a full anthropological qualification. The human embryo, therefore, has, right from the moment of conception, the dignity that inalienably belongs to the person”. According to the theologian, the Instruction “Dignitas personae” is addressed “at the faithful and all those who seek the truth”. And seeking the truth “in complex bioethical questions is not always easy: a continuous dialogue and the contribution of everyone are needed. To the mass media, in particular, is assigned the “grave responsibility” of “not creating divisions or oppositions but objectively documenting all the positions that emerge”.