VATICAN CITY, DEC. 21, 2000 (ZENIT.org).- A Vatican official has raised his
voice against the decision of Britain's House of Commons to authorize
experimentation on human embryos and use embryonic matter for medical
treatments.

Bishop Elio Sgreccia, vice president of the Pontifical Academy for Life and
director of the Bioethics Institute of Catholic University in Rome, told
Vatican Radio that the decision "one of the most catastrophic events of the
millennium's end." A measure, approved Tuesday by a vote of 366 to 174,
allows experimentation with any fetus less than 14 days old.

"To legitimize the suppression of human beings, our own children, for the
purpose of experimentation, represents a trauma for humanity never seen
before," he said.

"To produce the so-called mother cells [stem cells] which could help treat
other persons -- something that is still to be demonstrated, human beings
are disposed of," explained Bishop Sgreccia, one of the leading experts in
bioethics. "We are dealing with more than the simple transplant of an organ
from one human being to another. Here we are faced with the elimination of
human beings in order to extract cell tissue which will be implanted in
adults."

The British proposal violates European conventions for bioethical practice,
he added. "Looking from this perspective, it appears that the European
countries have written in vain the conventions to prohibit experimentation
on humans without their consent," the bishop said.

The vice president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, an institution
created by John Paul II, believes the gravest problem is that "this criminal
act, catastrophic for the future of humanity ... is not understood as such"
by public opinion.

"They have tried to justify the proposal by affirming that embryos younger
than 14 days would not be human beings," Bishop Sgreccia said. "But from my
point of view, here we have, in addition to a crime against life, a crime
against truth. They have deliberately affirmed pseudo-scientific
supposition, that the embryos are not human beings."

He concluded, "It is necessary to abolish this decision from European
history. If we do not reverse directions, we are creating a whirlpool that
will gobble up human beings."
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