Rome, Italy, Aug 25, 2011 / 16:03 pm

The president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, Archbishop Ignacio Carrasco de Paula, recently told CNA that the original definition of motherhood as a gift from God must be rediscovered.
 
Archbishop Carrasco said, “The reaction to the news of becoming a mother should return to being what it has always been, a reaction of joy” that leads us to say “congratulations.” He added that the response to a mother should not be “'I'm so sorry,' like we say to people who get sick.”
 
He recalled that it was Blessed John Paul II who was inspired 25 years ago to create the Pontifical Academy, which is dedicated to the defense of human life.  “He was the first to realize that the Church needed an academy devoted to the issues of life such as biomedicine or biotechnology,” the archbishop added.
 
Archbishop Carrasco said the dicastery’s focus this year has been on three areas: post-abortion trauma, umbilical cord banks and treatments for infertility.  Regarding post-abortion trauma, he said it is necessary that the condition be “defined as well as whether or not there is a cure.”
 
He also discussed the new ethical problems surrounding umbilical cord banks “of an economic nature,” because “there is a new market in which there is supply and demand.”  This factor is where ethical problems come into play, the archbishop said.
 
Likewise, he explained that the in vitro fertilization treatments imply “very serious moral problems because a child is created in the laboratory and can easily become an object of manipulation.”  The process is further complicated by the selection and destruction of multiple embryos, he added.
 
Archbishop Carrasco also noted that the defense of human life should also include helping the elderly.  “In this last great trial that they must overcome, they need particular help, and by help I mean not only the technically, but also personal and emotional help and respect for their dignity.”
 
We must recall “they are not people who have become useless to society and have nothing left to say,” the archbishop added.