A grave vacuum” “” “

With 316 votes against, 37 in favour and 47 abstentions, the European Parliament, in its session on 29 November, rejected the “Report on the ethical, juridical, economic and social implications of human genetics” presented by Francesco Fiori (European People’s Party group). In December 2000, the European Parliament had set up a “temporary Commission on human genetics and the other new technologies of modern medicine”, chaired by the Luxembourg MEP Goebbels (European Socialists). Francesco Fiori was then appointed as rapporteur. His “Report” had been approved by the temporary Commission at the beginning of November, by a small majority: 18 voted in favour, 13 against and 3 abstained. The document aimed to “reconcile freedom of research with the principle of human dignity”. The Report affirmed that “respect for human dignity requires that the human being be not reduced to biological aspects” and not be “subjected to considerations of utilitarian character”. The multitude of amendments, presented both by parliamentary groups and by individual MEPs, made it impossible to reach any agreement on the text proposed by the temporary Commission. The debate in the European Parliament, in fact, underlined the difficulty of harmonizing the conflicting needs of ethics, protection of human dignity, freedom of research, patients’ needs and economic interests. The Report having been rejected and the task of the temporary Commission exhausted, the EU Commissioner for research Busquin, on behalf of the Executive, expressed the hope that a dialogue be opened on the question, reaffirmed support for an international Convention against reproductive cloning, and announced the Commission’s intention to establish a group of experts to examine the various national legislations on the matter. We asked Father Marco Doldi , moral theologian, to comment on the debate that took place within the European Parliament on the matter. The recent rejection of the document on the social, juridical, ethical and economic implications of genetics creates a grave vacuum in Europe. MEPs were unable to reach agreement on the crucial questions recalled by a document that presented many positive aspects. The Report, for example, asked Europe only to authorize the creation of human embryos by the techniques of assisted fertilization for reproductive purposes, to prohibit their trade, and to ban cloning in any form. The text had been encumbered with hundreds of amendments and had become unrecognizable. The vacuum thus created is all the more disquieting given the fact that the European Union has given its approval to a framework programme to finance, in those countries where no legislation to the contrary exists, research on human embryos derived from abortions or produced by techniques of assisted fertilization. These two facts in themselves are significant because they reveal all too eloquently a strategic line that deliberately avoids imposing any ethical limitation in this field and that even approves and funds unlicensed research in this area. Yes, freedom of research is the myth that has been constantly evoked ever since the Enlightenment to justify and achieve the progress of science in this way. But the ends don’t justify the means: if progress remains the end to be pursued, we cannot ignore the means used and, in this case, embryonal experimentation and the suppression of a human being in the first phases of its development. Scientific research is never a good in itself: it is only a good in terms of the object it pursues, the methods it adopts and the objective it aims to achieve. For these reasons it needs to be controlled to ensure that its ethical requirements be satisfied. Only in this way can the real good of man and of every human being be assured. This time, Europe proved unable to reject a form of research that is pursued and developed by violating human dignity; it has preferred to reach a consensus on the economic questions rather than on those of an ethical and cultural order, which are far more important. Now as never before do we need to reaffirm that our countries of ancient Christian tradition must rediscover their true identity in the construction of a civilization centred on the inalienable good of the human person.