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MELBOURNE, March 26, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart released a statement on an embryo experimentation bill that will be debated in the Victorian Parliament this week. Archbishop Hart said that while there were positive sides to the bill, it will nonetheless allow for killing of human embryos and is therefore unsupportable.

“The Bill has some good aspects: it bans the creation of human embryos for research purposes, human cloning, animal-human hybrids, and some other abhorrent practices,” said the Archbishop. But due to the fact that it allows embryos to be killed, Archbishop Hart says, “Catholics and many others of good will cannot in conscience vote for a Bill which allows killing innocent human beings. That is our bottom line. We ask at the very least that the Embryo Experimentation Bill be split so that members can vote in support of the good parts and against the bad.”

In his statement he explained, “Thousands of human IVF embryos lie in laboratory freezers today, powerless, voiceless, unseen. They are human. They are alive. They are what we all once were. And so they should be treated with reverence and love.” He continued, “Until now it has been illegal in the State of Victoria to kill human embryos – or anyone else – for experimental purposes. Now for the first time in legal history we will be treating a live human being as a lab animal or a commodity: a what rather than a who. We will be saying that some human beings can be used – even killed -for the benefit of others.”