Ladies and Gentlemen,

 1. I am happy to have this opportunity to welcome you to the Vatican on

 the occasion of your International Congress. I thank Professor Cosmi for

 his kind words on your behalf, and I assure you of the interest with

 which the Holy See follows developments in your field of competence.

 Let me first say how pleased I am with the Convention theme: "Fetus as a

 Patient". With its focus upon the fetus as the subject of medical

 intervention and therapy, your Congress considers the fetus in its full

 human dignity, a dignity which the unborn child possesses from the

 moment of conception.

 2. In recent decades, when the sense of the humanity of the fetus has

 been undermined or distorted by reductive understandings of the human

 person and by laws which introduce scientifically unfounded qualitative

 stages in the development of conceived life, the Church has repeatedly

 affirmed and defended the human dignity of the fetus. By this we mean

 that "the human being is to be respected and treated as a person from

 the moment of conception; and therefore from that same moment his rights

 as a person must be recognized, among which in the first place is the

 inviolable right of every innocent human being to life" (Instruction

 Donum Vitae, 79; cf. Encyclical Letter Evangelium Vitae, 60).

 3. The fetal therapies now emerging in the medical, surgical and genetic

 fields offer new hope of saving the lives of those suffering from

 pathologies which are either incurable or very difficult to treat after

 birth. They thus confirm the teaching which the Church has upheld on the

 basis of both philosophy and theology. Faith in fact does not diminish

 the value and validity of reason; on the contrary, faith sustains and

 illuminates reason, especially when human weakness or negative

 psycho-social influences lessen its perspicacity.

 In your work therefore, which should always be based upon scientific and

 ethical truth, you are called upon to reflect seriously on certain

 proposals and practices emerging in the technologies of artificial

 procreation. In my Encyclical Letter Evangelium Vitae, I noted that the

 various techniques of artificial reproduction, apparently at the service

 of life, actually open the door to new attacks on life.

 Apart from the fact that they are morally unacceptable, since they

 separate procreation from the fully human context of the conjugal act,

 these techniques have a high rate of failure. And not just failure in

 relation to fertilization, but failure affecting the subsequent

 development of the embryo, which is exposed to the risk of death,

 generally within a very short space of time (cf. Evangelium Vitae, 14).

 4. A case of special moral gravity, often deriving from these illicit

 procedures, is so-called "embryonic reduction", or the elimination of

 some fetuses when multiple conceptions take place at one time. Such a

 procedure is gravely illicit when multiple conceptions occur in the

 normal course of marital relations, but it is doubly reprehensible when

 they are the result of artificial procreation.

 Those who resort to artificial methods must be held responsible for

 illicit conception, but whatever the mode of conception – once it

 happens – the child conceived must be absolutely respected. The life of

 the fetus must be protected, defended and nurtured in the mother's womb

 because of its inherent dignity, a dignity which belongs to the embryo

 and is not something conferred or granted by others, whether the genetic

 parents, the medical personnel or the State.

 5. Distinguished guests, you are specialists in accompanying the

 wondrous and delicate beginnings of human life in the mother's womb.

 Therefore, you know best how Catholic moral teaching strengthens and

 supports a natural ethic, based upon respect for the inviolability of

 every human life. Catholic moral teaching sheds a guiding light on

 questions connected with the delicate process of life's dawning, so full

 of hope and rich in promise for later life, and a field now ripe for the

 marvellous discoveries of medical science. I trust that your work will

 always be inspired by a clear recognition of the dignity proper to every

 human being, each of whom is an incomparable gift of the creative love

 of God.

 Today I wish to pay tribute to your scientific discoveries and the ways

 in which you apply them to protecting the life and health of the unborn

 child. I invoke upon you and your work the unfailing help of Almighty

 God, and as a pledge of divine assistance I gladly impart my Apostolic

 Blessing.

 (Original Text)

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