Warning to the European Parliament” “” “

On 19 November the European Parliament (EP) approved a recommendation in favour of EU funding of research projects that entail the use of human embryos and human embryonal stem cells. The proposal, adopted with 291 votes in favour, 235 against and 12 abstentions, removes the condition fixed by the Commission that only embryos created after 27 June 2002 may be used, and therefore destroyed, to obtain embryonal stem cells. Such a recommendation involves the indirect possibility of EU funds being used for the creation, and hence the destruction, of human embryos to obtain new stem cells. Opposition to the recommendation has been expressed by COMECE (see SIR 80/2003), by many European episcopates and by the Holy Synod of Greece (see following page). Germany. An “appalling signal”: that’s how the German Episcopal Conference called the vote in the EP. “We are deeply concerned by the EP’s proposal that weakens the ethical guidelines proposed by the Commission on the funding of research on stem cells derived from human embryos – declare the German bishops – . In this way a higher value is attributed to research than to the dignity and right to life of human embryos. Research on the cells of human embryos presupposes the killing of human life. Human embryos have an inalienable right to life and human dignity from the moment of conception. Setting aside this protection of life in favour of the interests of research is unacceptable and contradicts the right to life recognized under current German law. We appeal to all the members of the Council of Ministers, on whom the final decisions rests, – conclude the German bishops – to commit themselves to the defence of the life of human embryos. The German government is called only to approve programmes that do not support any form of research that presupposes the killing of human embryos”. Austria. In an interview with the Austrian Catholic press agency “Kathpress”, the archbishop of Vienna Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, president of the Austrian Bishops’ Conference, has expressed his own disappointment about the result of the vote in the EP. “I hope that during their meeting in Brussels the European ministers for research will extend the deadline of 31 December 2003 for research”, declared the cardinal, emphasizing that “each line of stem cells is based on human embryos that would have to be destroyed and to which the chance to develop would be denied”. Schönborn also referred to the alternative of “allocating EU funds to the promising and ethically unexceptional research on adult stem cells”. “The first moments of human life also deserve to be protected as an inseparable part of the whole cycle of life”, he declared. “The destruction of human embryos cannot be a sign of genuine scientific progress”. Ireland. Cardinal Desmond Connell, archbishop of Dublin, Joseph Duffy, bishop of Clogher, and Patrick Walsh, bishop of Down and Connor, have met the Irish Toaiseach Bertie Ahern, to discuss the EU proposals to fund research on embryonal stem cells. Following the meeting, Bishop Duffy sent a letter to the Toaiseach on behalf of the delegation of the Episcopal Conference. “In spite of the possibility, still not yet proved, of achieving therapeutic benefits in the long term”, “neither the deliberate destruction of human embryos, nor the use of stem cells obtained through such destruction”, can, in the Church’s view, be justified in any way. While recognizing that research on adult stem cells is licit, and acknowledging the personal commitment of Ahern, the Irish bishops express their “impression that the government is neutral on the issue” and appeals to it to “express at the European level their own opposition to funding research on human embryos”.