Questions of rights and life

The COMECE monthly features in-depth reflections on the bank regulating system, as well as on bioethics, ensuing the ruling of the European Court on an Italian case of pre-implant diagnosis and asylum rights on religious grounds (in the light of a Court case in Germany). The issue features also a rendering of EU-China relations over the past decade, an overview of the situation in prisons in European Countries, as well as a commemorative article on the figure of Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini and an account of the "European Alpbach Forum" of past August. The editorial by COMECE Secretary Piotr Mazurkiewicz is titled, "Brussels: between Athens and Jerusalem".Re-imagining imprisonment in Europe. Official figures show there are over 650 thousand people in prison. Those who work in prisons amount to one million 800 thousand people. The states with most prison inmates are the United Kingdom (97,079), Poland (84,103) and Spain (69,702) and outside the EU Russia (722.200) and Ukraine (153.318). These enormous figures "show that there’s something wrong in our societies", writes José Ignacio García (JESC). In Poland there are 220 detainees, on a population of 100.000, 210 in the Czech Republic, 59 in Finland and 64 in Slovenia. This shows that "In general, those states with lower prison populations have developed alternative programmes, which tend to facilitate the social reintegration of offenders". Evidence shows that more than 60% of prisoners reoffend. Imprisonment is a mode of punishment but it it’s not capable of promoting personal change". "Restorative justice" is being promoted by many Christian groups as a means to bring together offenders and victims and, in a complex and careful process, facilitate both the healing of victims and the reform of offenders.EU-China: from the honeymoon to disappointment. "Over the last ten years – when China was governed by Prime Minister Wen Jiabao – EU-China relations have first gone through a period of warming, when the EU flirted with the idea of lifting the arms embargo it had imposed after the 1989 Tiananmen repression and the U.S. began their invasion of Iraq, disappointing many European leaders. But the "honeymoon period was followed by China’s disappointment". But China’s adoption of the Anti-Secession law against Tiwan’s independence took place when a delay in the lifting of the embargo signaled that Europe was unable to keep its promises and that it was strongly influenced by the United States’ foreign policy. China’s offense was clearly expressed in 2008, when the EU-China summit was cancelled because of the meeting of President Sarkozy with the Dalai Lama. Among other things, China failed to obtain recognition of its market economy by Europe and Europe failed to obtain the respect of human rights in China. But China has greatly grown and managed to promote the growth of its foreign investments in EU Member countries, thus entering the relations of EU countries. "With hat in hand looking for financial help from China, Europe feels it has little political leverage or pride and practically no military sticks to wield in the geo-strategic hot spot of the South China Sea". Theresa Fallon points out: "Europe’s Asia policy has largely been China-centric and the relationship is anchored by trade with a distinct absence of common values". Europe appears to be extending its relations towards other Asian countries, while from next March the Li Keqiang will assume the lead of the Chinese government.Is child selection a right? Pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) refers to procedures, adjunct to assisted reproductive technologies (ART), by which an embryo is genetically analysed. Normally, only less than 20% of the biopsied embryos is eventually available for transfer into the uterus. The embryos which are not transferred are normally destroyed. Only Italy, together with Austria and Switzerland prohibit PDG. However, in a ruling of last 28 August, the European Court at Strasbourg "held that this prohibition violates the European Convention on Human Rights", explained José Ramos-Ascensão (COMECE), ensuing an Italian case described in the article. "PDG GD violates, among others, the principle of human dignity, the inviolability of the right to life and the right to physical integrity of each human being". The instruction Donum Vitae of 1987 affirms that "a diagnosis which shows the existence of a malformation or a hereditary illness must not be the equivalent of a death-sentence". But the European Court’s conclusion is evidently that "if the Italian law on abortion were to forbid so-called "therapeutic" abortion the prohibition would become proportionate". On the other hand there is the right not only to have a child, but also a healthy one. Concludes José Ramos-Ascensão: "This is not far from recognition of a right to eugenics".