Bishop calls new Spanish law on reproduction “monstrosity”

Madrid, Spain, Feb 21, 2006 / 22:00 pm

Bishop Jose Manuel Lorca Planes of Teruel, Spain has joined a chorus of critics condemning a new law on assisted human reproduction passed by the country’s House of Representatives, calling it a monstrosity that attacks human dignity by promoting the murder of the innocent.

In a pastoral letter Bishop Lorca said, “The human embryo deserves the respect due to a human person.”  The embryo “is not a thing or a mere blob of living cells, but rather the first state of existence of a human being.” 

He said the new law was a not a sign of progress for society and that those who “wish to sell us the idea that all of our problems would be solved by creating people in the laboratory” are “irrational” and “imprudent.”

Bishop Jesus Sanz Montes of Huesca also decried the law saying, “Christians are not against scientific advances,” but it is “hypocritical to pass laws to protect our lungs from second-hand smoke and at the same time to pass laws snuffing out the life of the human embryo… as if it were a guinea pig.”

Bishop Montes said it was “frightening” to think about the financial benefit the new law represents for companies involved in such practices and he denounced politicians who embrace such policies in order to gain votes.

Last Thursday, Spain’s House of Representatives passed the new law on assisted reproduction, which allows a woman to have up to three embryos implanted in her uterus in order to increase the possibilities of a successful pregnancy.  It also allows couples to decide whether to keep the left over embryos, donate them for research or to other couples, or to have them destroyed.