ROME, SEP 8,2000 (ZENIT.org).- News of the European Parliament's resolution
against human cloning had immediate repercussions at the Catholic
University of Rome, where a Congress is underway to study the "Rights of
the Person from the Bioethical and Juridical Perspective."

Yesterday, a surprise coalition of the European Popular Party, the
Greens, and various conservative factions condemned all cloning of
humans, including the cloning of embryos for use as tissue donors,
approved by the British Parliament. That coalition won out over the
combined might of the socialists and liberals by only seven votes.

Professor Gonzalo Herranz, director of the Bioethics Department of the
University of Navarre, who is presiding over the meeting, is pleased.
His reason: "My most beautiful day, although I could not yet celebrate
it, was my first day, when my life began as an embryo. Those who do not
respect conceived life do not respect my life, either."

-- ZENIT: What do you think of the European Parliament's decision?

-- Herranz: It is an action full of ethical wisdom, from the broad
horizon characteristic of the work of parliaments, which have the duty
to make the people's voice heard. It is a responsibility the Holy Father
entrusts to scientists in "Redemptoris Hominis": to ask themselves
always if their plan leads to a more human and just society. The
Helsinki Declaration of the World Medical Association also reminds
everyone that the interests of science can never prevail over those of
the individual.

-- ZENIT: Does the elimination from the text of a more rigorous
principle on the dignity of the unborn, reduce the extent of the result?

-- Herranz: Political decisions are never perfectly conformed to the
ideal. The art of politics teaches to cede a little in order to save the
essential.

-- ZENIT: What are the aspects that could now give real effectiveness to
this resolution? Penal sanctions? Reduced funding?

-- Herranz: There are already sanctions in French, German, and Spanish
law. This is not new for them.

-- ZENIT: Which model should be looked at by countries like Italy, which
have yet to legislate on the matter?

-- Herranz: I think the French, which indicates respect for life and the
human body, if the debate has arrived at that point. However, England
can also turn back: the law on human fertility and embryology has been
sent to the British authority, which has virtually absolute
decision-making power.

-- ZENIT: There is also talk of reducing the funding.

-- Herranz: We are aware, however, of what happened in the United States
where, in order to avoid the prohibition and not dirty their hands,
public institutes purchase stem cells obtained from embryos...

-- ZENIT: It was important to stop the plan to separate reproductive
cloning from "therapeutic" cloning.

-- Herranz: It is a key aspect. When Dolly the sheep was cloned, there
was agreement that cloning should not extend to man. The first person to
say it could have important results for research was Lord Wilson in
England. Since then, the idea has gained ground.

-- ZENIT: Now it will be said that the Church wants to put the brakes on
science.

-- Herranz: It would be unjust, even fanatic, to think that. The Church
defends the dignity of man, of every man. There are many roads to
follow. There are stem cells present in the placenta, the umbilical
cord, but also in other tissues. Research must continue on stem cells
present in blood, in bone-marrow. Lost cell tissues will be able to be
reconstituted in the skin, in the liver, even in the brain. The person
who manages to patent this discovery will be a multimillionaire. This
could happen within 6 to 8 years.

-- ZENIT: Given that there are acceptable avenues, why is there a desire
to clone embryos?

-- Herranz: To do it faster because, contrary to "leftover" embryos,
there is no need for permission, not even from the parents.

-- ZENIT: Will the "bricolage" type restraint established at Strasbourg
be effective?