Members of the European Parliament have voted in favour of measures that would allow the sale of human embryos as ‘substances of human origin’.
The regulations, if brought into law, will mean that human embryos will be classed in much the same way as human blood cells or tissue and be made available for sale.
The vote won a majority in the EU Parliament last week with 483 votes in favour and 52 against.
“It’s a measure of how human life has become utterly devalued,” said Megan Ní Scealláin of Life Institute. “Selling human embryos – human beings at the start of their lives is simply morally wrong – and the deliberate destruction of human embryos because they have a disability should obviously be seen as eugenics. We need to rebuild a culture of life where the right to life is once seen as a fundamental right – not just something afforded to the perfect, the planned and the privileged.”
The Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Union (COMECE) and the Katholisches Büro in Berlin issued a joint statement condemning the move saying it “will raise numerous ethical and constitutional conflict issues in the EU Member States,”
“The danger lies in the possibility that such a definition may degrade the dignity and value of human life, creating an unacceptable equivalence between embryos and foetuses and simple skin cells or blood plasma”, said Secretary General of COMECE, Fr. Manuel Barrios Prieto,
The statement continued that, In view of the objective of the EU regulation, which will be directly applicable in all Member States, to “realise the full potential of novel forms of processing and use of blood, tissues and cells for patients” and to ensure “patient care”, the newly introduced term “Substance of Human Origin” (herein: SoHO) is defined very broadly.”
“The definition of “SoHO” according to Article 3 No. 5 of the draft regulation not only refers to non-fertilised germ cells (sperm, oocytes and degenerated oocytes) in the field of reproductive medicine but also covers embryos and fetuses. This is relevant, for example, to the removal and use of deceased or killed embryos and fetuses as well as the alternative use of in-vitro-produced supernumerary embryos that are deliberately not implanted in the woman’s uterus,”
“Due to the broad wording, it is to be feared that even naturally conceived children who are not yet independently viable in the prenatal stages of development may be subsumed under the term SoHO,” it warned.
The Iona Institute has said that “the proposed regulation approves the destruction of embryos with genetic anomalies, such as Down Syndrome. All in all, the proposal, which now goes before the European Council, is a terrible piece of work that thoroughly disrespects human life at its earliest stages,”
“If the proposal becomes law, it will allow human embryos created in laboratories specifically for research purposes, or ‘spare’ embryos left over by the IVF process, to be used for commercial scientific research. In other words, they will be for sale. It might even include naturally conceived unborn children,” it said.