| Human Embryo |
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| Tuesday, 06 June 2006 05:25 | |||
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“Seriously immoral” is the phrase used for manipulation of the human embryo by the Pontifical Academy for Life in its “Final Declaration” at the 12th General Assembly in Rome recently. The Academy met to discuss “The human embryo in the preimplantation phase: Scientific aspects and Bioethical Considera-tions.” In an address to the Academy on 27 February, Pope Benedict XVI summarized Catholic doctrine in this regard within the context of divine love: “God’s love does not differentiate between the newly conceived infant still in his or her mother’s womb and the child or young person, or the adult and the elderly person. God does not distinguish between them because he sees an impression of his own image and likeness (Gen. 1:26) in each one.” The mere fact of being in the presence of a human being, the Academy explained, should logically demand “full respect for the embryo’s integrity and dignity.” Moreover, any action that could in any way threaten or offend the fundamental rights of a human embryo – beginning with the right to life – has to be viewed as gravely immoral. (The United States Declaration of Independence says the same.) A list of “certain universally recognized” truths was set forth at the Academy’s meeting. One is that the very moment human sperm penetrates the oocyte can be assessed as the moment when the existence of a new human being commences. Another is that biological science, especially embryology, “provides the documentation of a definite direction of development.” Furthermore, the “autonomy” of the new human being can be seen in the very process of “the auto-duplication of genetic materials.” Thirdly, the characteristic of “gradualness” (i.e., “the time needed for the passage from a less differentiated stage to a more dif-ferentiated stage”) and of the “coordination” of development (i.e., “the existence of mechanisms that regulate the developmental process in a unitary whole”) is likewise linked to “continuity.” In other words, what happens with new human life is a highly complex and continuous development of a primordial organism, marvelous to observe and document, thanks to breakthroughs in modern embryology. Furthermore, these scientific findings challenge all thinking persons to face squarely the moral status of the human embryo. Thus, certain realities must be faced with respect to the human embryo in the preimplantation phase; that, for example, the human embryo is “a being of the human species”; that, too, “it is an individual being”; that it is “a being that possesses in itself the finality to develop as a human person together with the intrinsic capacity to achieve such development.” Moreover, the biological data lead to the conclusion that – in the Academy’s words – “there is no significant reason to deny that the embryo is already a person in this phase.” Here the Academy recalls Psalm 139; specifically, the section that reads: “For you did form my inward parts; you did knit me together in my mother’s womb… Wonderful are your works!” Again, the scientific evidence shores up what we know from Revelation, and from reason, illumined by Revelation. Yet we know that it could not be otherwise. All truth merges into, indeed derives from, divine Truth.
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