Following today's decision by the HFEA to relax the grounds on which embryos can be created, screened then destroyed in order to find a genetic match which may be used to help a sick sibling, the Catholic Church has reiterated its opposition to the move.

Archbishop Mario Conti issued a statement from Lourdes, where he is leading a pilgrimage of several hundred sick pilgrims from Glasgow.

He said:
"One can understand the motives of those parents who request
such a procedure, but we cannot lose sight of the fact that embryos are
human beings, whether implanted in the womb and carried to term, or
reproduced and then destroyed in the laboratory. For every embryo
implanted using the technique proposed many will be destroyed. We do not
as a society, have the right to initiate human life either to destroy
it, or for purposes, however nobly intended, which render that life a
means to someone else's ends. Human life is not a commodity; a baby is
not a product; an embryo is not a cluster of exploitable cells."



ENDS


Note to editors:

Archbishop Conti is the Archbishop of Glasgow and a member of the Catholic Bishops' Joint Bioethics Committee.


Peter Kearney
Director
Catholic Media Office
5 St. Vincent Place
Glasgow
G1 2DH
0141 221 1168
pk@scmo.org
www.scmo.org