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Pope: Human Dignity - Right to Life Begins at "Fecundation"

By John-Henry Westen

VATICAN, November 21, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Pope Benedict XVI addressed participants in a Health Care conference at the Vatican Saturday, on the topic of the human genome.  An analysis of scientific data, he said, reveals the dignity of human life "from the first moment of fecundation." 

The statement is significant since it answers, for Catholics, questions surrounding the beginning of a right to life.  Many, some Catholics included, have wondered about the stage at which the embryo deserves protection.  Some have proposed that the morning after pill would avert abortion since it acts prior a modern definition of 'conception' which entails implantation of the embryo into the mother's womb. 

The statement that human beings have human dignity from "fecundation" - defined as the moment the sperm and egg unite - is thus significant to pro-lifers. 

In his talk, the Pope highlighted the fact that people of our time "are capable of understanding that the dignity of man is not identified with the genes of his DNA, and does not diminish in the presence of any physical diversity or genetic defects.  The principle of 'non discrimination' on the basis of physical or genetic factors has entered profoundly into people's consciences and is formally expressed in the Charter of Human Rights. This principle has its most authentic roots in the dignity intrinsic to each human being by the fact of having been created in the image and likeness of God."

After pointing out how the Church "announces and presents this truth, not only with the authority of the Gospel but also with the strength deriving from reason," the Holy Father affirmed: "It is necessary to guard against the risks of a science and technology that seek complete autonomy from the moral norms written into human nature."

(with files from the Vatican Information Service)

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