Theology complemented by science, says Argentinean archbishop

Buenos Aires, Argentina, Mar 23, 2007 / 09:21 am

In a message marking the Day of the Unborn Child, which will be celebrated in Argentina and other countries in Latin America on March 25, Archbishop Hector Aguer of La Plata said, “Every child that is born brings us God’s smile and invites us to recognize that life is a gift from Him” and he said that the theology is perfectly complemented by science as the latter shows that “a human being is formed from the moment of fertilization.”

In his message, the archbishop noted, “The embryo is a genetically identifiable human person who is beginning the marvelous process of his growth and is implanted in the wall of the uterus on the sixth or seventh day in order to continue his vital development until the moment he is born.”

“Unfortunately in Argentina today, some are trying to suppress God’s smile,” Archbishop Aguer stated.  “We can’t come to any other conclusion if we think about the decisions of officials in the current administration.  The Minister of Health approved the free distribution in all hospitals and health care facilities of the morning-after pill.  His equivalent in the province of Buenos Aires immediately threw his support behind the plan.  This solution is presented as emergency contraception and they are trying to make people believe it does not have an abortifacient effect,” he said.

Archbishop Aguer lamented that officials and some experts in bioethics, without any scientific basis, affirm that life begins with the implantation of the embryo in the uterus and that before that moment it’s just a cluster of cells falsely called a pre-embryo.

“This distinction is arbitrary: it is not endorsed either by biology or by embryology, yet it is used as an argument to justify eliminating the fruit of conception.  People should be alerted to the grave harm that the ingestion of these pills without prior clinical oversight and subsequent follow up can cause women,” he said in conclusion.