|
1. WHAT RESPECT IS DUE TO THE HUMAN EMBRYO,
TAKING INTO ACCOUNT HIS NATURE AND IDENTITY?
The human being must be respected - as a
person - from the very first instant of his existence. The implementation of procedures
of artificial fertilization has made possible various interventions upon
embryos and human foetuses. The aims pursued are of various kinds: diagnostic
and therapeutic, scientific and commercial. From all of this, serious problems
arise. Can one speak of a right to experimentation upon human embryos for the
purpose of scientific research? What norms or laws should be worked out with
regard to this matter? The response to these problems presupposes a detailed
reflection on the nature and specific identity - the word "status" is
used - of the human embryo itself .
At the Second Vatican Council, the Church
for her part presented once again to modern man her constant and certain
doctrine according to which: "Life once conceived, must be protected with
the utmost care; abortion and infanticide are abominable crimes". (23) More recently, the Charter of the Rights of the Family, published by
the Holy See, confirmed that "Human life must be absolutely respected and
protected from the moment of conception".(24)
This Congregation is aware of the current
debates concerning the beginning of human life, concerning the individuality of
the human being and concerning the identity of the human person. The
Congregation recalls the teachings found in the Declaration on Procured
Abortion: "From the time that the ovum is fertilized, a new life is
begun which is neither that of the father nor of the mother; it is rather the
life of a new human being with his own growth. It would never be made human if
it were not human already. To this perpetual evidence ... modern genetic
science brings valuable confirmation. It has demonstrated that, from the first
instant, the programme is fixed as to what this living being will be: a man,
this individual-man with his characteristic aspects already well determined.
Right from fertilization is begun the adventure of a human life, and each of
its great capacities requires time ... to find its place and to be in a
position to act". (25) This teaching remains valid and is further
confirmed, if confirmation were needed, by recent findings of human biological
science which recognize that in the zygote* resulting from fertilization the biological
identity of a new human individual is already constituted. Certainly no
experimental datum can be in itself sufficient to bring us to the recognition
of a spiritual soul; nevertheless, the conclusions of science regarding the
human embryo provide a valuable indication for discerning by the use of reason
a personal presence at the moment of this first appearance of a human life: how
could a human individual not be a human person? The Magisterium has not
expressly committed itself to an affirmation of a philosophical nature, but it
constantly reaffirms the moral condemnation of any kind of procured abortion.
This teaching has not been changed and is unchangeable.(26)
Thus the fruit of human generation, from the
first moment of its existence, that is to say from the moment the zygote has
formed, demands the unconditional respect that is morally due to the human
being in his bodily and spiritual totality. 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. This
doctrinal reminder provides the fundamental criterion for the solution of the
various problems posed by the development of the biomedical sciences in this field:
since the embryo must be treated as a person, it must also be defended in its
integrity, tended and cared for, to the extent possible, in the same way as any
other human being as far as medical assistance is concerned.
|