By Tim Waggoner
ROME, January 27, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Welcoming the new French ambassador to the Holy See yesterday morning, Pope Benedict XVI reminded France of the need to respect the inherent dignity of human life during the country’s upcoming discussions on bioethical reform.
Pope Benedict opened the meeting with French ambassador Stanislas Lefebvre de Laboulaye by alluding to the government’s decision to uphold a ban on euthanasia and increase efforts to care for the seriously ill, saying how pleased he was “at the parliament having reached prudent conclusions, replete with humanity, on questions concerning the end of life.”
This respect for human life, said the Pope, needs to be present in the country’s upcoming discussions surrounding potential bioethical reform.
“My hope is that this prudence, which recognises the intangible nature of all human life, is upheld when it comes to revising the laws on bioethics,” said Pope Benedict.
France’s current bioethics laws were enacted in 2004, and, amongst other things, make living human embryos available for research that results in their death.
The 2004 legislation also made reproductive cloning of a human being – that is, the creation of a cloned person who will be allowed to live – a “crime against the human race,” but this law may be changed as a result of the impending discussions.
According to the Catholic News Service, Pope Benedict stressed the need for science to always “be guided by the concern to serve the good and the inalienable dignity of the human being,” and reiterated the importance of the Vatican Instruction “Dignitas Personae,” or “The Dignity of a Person.”