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Wednesday November 17, 2010


Germany’s Christian Democrats narrowly vote to retain embryo screening ban

By Hilary White

BERLIN, November 17, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Germany’s ruling party has voted to retain a party policy in favor of the country’s ban on the screening of embryos for genetic defects through pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) during in vitro fertilization procedures. Fifty-one percent of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrat party (CDU) voted in favor of the policy at its annual conference on Tuesday.

“I favor a PGD ban because I am concerned that we cannot define its limits properly,” Merkel said on Monday.

Germany is one of the few countries in the EU that has put in place significant restrictions on the creation of embryos and their use in medical research. This resistance is often explained by the fact that public memory of the Nazi eugenics policies remains strong in the country.

“If life is a gift from God, it is not given with any condition,” Julia Kloeckner, leader of CDU in the state of Rhineland Palatinate said. “It would be disturbing for doctors to decide which embryos should be allowed to live by saying ‘you’re okay, you’re not.’”

The vote, however, showed a deep division in the party over the issue. “There is a difference between an embryo before and after [implantation in the womb] has taken place,” said Minister for Family Affairs Kristina Schroeder.

CDU parliamentary secretary Peter Hintze, who also opposes the policy, pointed out a contradiction in the law, in that unborn babies can be killed up to the ninth month of pregnancy in Germany, if they are found to have a serious health condition.

“It’s quite a contradiction that we don’t allow the cells to be checked,” argued Hintze, according to Deutsche Welle. “But we do allow the fetus to be checked in the womb. We should get rid of this contradiction.”

PGD as it is practiced in IVF clinics commonly involves the selection before implantation of embryos created in the lab that are screened for possible genetic problems. The remaining ‘defective’ embryos are normally destroyed. Pro-life objectors to the practice have pointed out that it results necessarily in the deaths of those embryonic persons who are considered too risky for implantation.

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