” ““We confirm our objection to the EU funding of research involving the destruction of human embryos”. The European bishops take position about the debate, which is in going on within the EU institutions about the outline of the 7th Framework Research Program, which at this stage concerns in particular the Competitiveness Council and the Parliamentary Itre Commission (Industry and Research), both convened on May 30th. Comece (Commission of EU Bishoprics) had already published, in November 2005, a detailed text on the subject, called “The funding of research and ethics”. In a release published yesterday, the Executive Committee of Comece, chaired by the bishop of Rotterdam, mgr. Adrianus van Luyn, summarises the issues under discussion and insists on their “fundamental ethical and anthropological” implications. Then, it states especially in the light of an amendment to the 7th Program adopted by the Itre Commission, which proposes that common funds should be allocated to research into embryo stem cells that “treating a human embryo as an object of research is not compatible with the respect of human life”. The bishops therefore who have always agreed on the fundamental value of science and experiments in many sectors warn about the “respect of the fundamental values and reasons under which some member states prohibit or limit this kind of research”, to protect “the inviolability of life and human dignity”.
