Pro-life alarm

By mid-February the work group specially set up within the majority party in Poland, the Civic Platform (PO), should complete the bill on bioethics that is necessary to proceed to the ratification of the Convention on Bioethics of the Council of Europe (the Oviedo Convention). In view of the total lack of legislation on the matter in Poland, some Polish bishops think that the bill, coordinated by the well-known Catholic MP Jaroslaw Gowin, is objectively realistic. It proposes that in vitro procreation (test tube babies) should be permitted only to married couples, authorises the creation and implant of no more than two embryos, prohibits their destruction (making provision instead in some cases for the possibility of adoption), and limits cryopreservation only to extreme cases. Moreover, it introduces a ban on the marketing or donation of embryos, a ban on the sale of ovum cells (gametes); it also prohibits the free supply of oocytes or spermatozoa, and insemination with the spermatozoa of an external donor. The proposed law prohibits both cloning and the use of embryos for scientific or therapeutic purposes, as well as the creation of chimeras or hybrid organisms. Cases of over-treatment (with the exclusion of those therapies of maintenance in life by means of the administration of nutritive liquids and substances), and the circumstances of the drafting of the so-called biological testament, are also defined in the bill. The dignity of the person. “It should be pointed out that in vitro fertilization is not only a question of science and Catholic morality: it also regards the dignity itself of the person”, Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz recently remarked. “The main criterion of evaluation is not religion but respect for the dignity of the person and recognition of his/her fundamental rights, including the right to life and to its transmission in conformity with the dignity of man”, said the cardinal, according to whom “at the present time, in cases of in vitro fertilization, the dignity of the human person is in no way safeguarded by the existing legislation”. As things stands today in Poland the number of frozen embryos is estimated somewhere between 20,000 and 55,000. Polish MP Jaroslaw Gowin says for his part: “I think that some of the scientific experiments being conducted today are hair-raising. Poland is one of suppliers of unborn infants for use in experiments in countries where the creation of embryos is prohibited”. The light of reason. Recently, the Council for the Family of the Polish Bishops’ Conference (KEP), in a special letter addressed to all MPs to accompany the Polish translation of the instruction “Dignitatis personae”, expressed the hope that politicians, “in the adoption of laws that regulate the field of bioethics, would be blessed with the light of reason and warmth of heart so that, in conformity with the dictates of their own conscience, they would confirm the value of human life and the dignity of the person”. To monitor and evaluate the situation in the field of ethics, bioethics and biotechnologies, a special group of experts for bioethics was set up within the Polish Bishops’ Conference a year ago. “The Polish episcopate expects the adoption of laws that respect the ethical aspects of the complex question of bioethics”, said the chairman of the group, Mgr. Henryk Hoser. Speaking of the infertility from which between 4% and 14% of Polish couples suffer, the bishop pointed out the inefficiency of in vitro fertilization. Many doctors, moreover, point out that the development of in vitro techniques has caused a lack of progress in the development of infertility therapies in Europe. Speaking of the sufferings caused by infertility, Bishop Stanislaw Stefanek of Lomza declared: “We cannot treat the suffering of a person by causing the suffering of another. We don’t take lightly the suffering of those unable to have children, but we cannot accept” the proposition that suffering can be overcome “by the killing of human beings”, as are embryos. The importance of public debate. Some MPs of the right-wing opposition party Law and Justice (PIS) presented a bill a few days ago that would prohibit the creation of embryos, but that would tolerate in vitro fertilization until all the existing biological material is used up. Since September, moreover, a debate on another bioethical bill, this one drafted by left-wing groups, has been awaited. The bill in question provides for the reimbursement by the national health system of costs incurred by couples for in vitro fertilization. The secretary of the KEP Mgr. Stanislaw Budzik makes the point that “recent discussions on bioethics have led Polish public opinion to deepen their reflection on the matter”. And this in itself is perhaps another step towards a more dignified and human 21st century.