Voters will be asked to answer four questions: “Do you agree with a law that makes for the creation of a higher number of human embryos than that which has to be immediately transferred into the mother, and just once? Do you agree with a law that makes for the birth of a child without a biological mother and father joined in a stable relationship? Do you agree on the fact the law admits resorting to surrogate mothers, so that pregnancy can take place in the uterus of a mother whose child is not biologically hers?” In this respect, mgr. Antonio Montes Moreira, vice-president of the Portuguese Bishops Conference and bishop of Bragança-Miranda, last Sunday highlighted that “the bill of law that is about to be voted on must consider two basic principles: the end does not justify the means, and everything that is technically possible is not always ethically acceptable”. In the light of this, he said, “two instruments that are contained in the law submitted to the vote must be rejected: heterologous fertilisation outside marriage and resorting to embryos which are then destroyed for therapeutic purposes”.
