VATICAN CITY, JULY 13 (ZENIT.org).- As a result of the application of techniques
of stimulating ovaries and artificial fertilization, in recent years there have often
been cases of multiple conceptions, either inside or outside the womb. Such
situations at times pose a dramatic question: Is it right to deprive one or more of the
embryos of life, to avoid complications in the pregnancy? 
In response to numerous consultations, and after referring the matter to the
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Pontifical Council for the Family,
presided over by Cardinal Alfonso López Trujillo, published a statement today,
reiterating that the human being has full dignity from the first moment of
conception; hence, the elimination of embryos is a form of willful abortion. 

Doctors Called to Prudence 
The statement begins by noting,"We must first of all take account of the difficult and
sometimes dramatic situations that such techniques can produce." Therefore,
doctors are called to responsibility because, for lack of professional training,
prudence, or the application of techniques of artificial fertilization, they can provoke
"situations that put the like of both mother and conceived children at risk." 

Reduction of Embryos 
Faced with pregnancies of 6 or 7 embryos, there are doctors who believe that "it
would be justifiable to select and eliminate some of the embryos in order to save
the others, or at least one of them." This has resulted in the introduction of a
technique known as "fetal reduction," which is simply the elimination of one or more
babies in order to give the remaining ones a better chance to survive. 
Given such cases, the Council for the Family explained that "from the first moment
of conception" the unborn must be "accorded fundamental human rights, and
above all, the right to life, which cannot be violated in any way." Because of this,
the Council affirms that "'fetal reduction' is the same as selective abortion. It
consists precisely in the direct and willful elimination of an innocent human being."

 
In Virtue of Dignity of The Conceived 
"The moral prescription remains even in the case in which continuing the
pregnancy would bring a risk to the life or health of the mother and of the other
brothers and sisters in the multiple pregnancy," Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo's
note states. "It is never licit to do evil, even in view of attaining a good." 

Eugenics? 
Moreover, in face of the serious danger posed by these situations, the Holy See
warns that this type of intervention might promote the spreading of a eugenic
mentality, that is, the selection of embryos "according to parameters of normality
and 'physical well-being.' " Indeed, the selection of conceived human beings could
be used with great ease as an instrument to "choose" the healthiest embryos,
which might well open the door to all kinds of aberrations. 
The document ends by affirming that "even if due to human limitations we are
sometimes forced to only helplessly witness the death of innocent creatures, it can
never by morally licit to willfully provoke death." 
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