Quotes and news

The European Court of Human Rights has decided that the rights of parents are violated by the Italian law on IVF which does not allow them to screen embryos for disease before implantation.

The 2004 Italian law, considered to be one of the strictest in Europe, allows for in-vitro fertilisation but prohibits the screening of embryos. In its sentence the court acknowledged that the law was written to “avoid the risk of eugenic abuses”.

However when two parents challenged the law, the court concluded it was “inconsistent” that Italians could abort a foetus with defects but not test an embryo before implantation, as the couple had wanted to do.

That provision of the law was challenged by a couple who, after having a child with cystic fibrosis, aborted a second child who was diagnosed in-utero with the disease, and chose to pursue another pregnancy by in-vitro fertilisation, destroying any embryo that was found to have the same disease.

Nevertheless the court ruled that the couple’s privacy rights are more important than the risk of eugenic abuses.

Irish MPs call for a free vote on abortion

Although there is at present no proposal to change the law banning abortion in Ireland, proposals could be made after a government-appointed commission publishes its conclusions next month. The Church has declared itself against the liberalisation of the present law.

Meanwhile, Brian Hayes, a junior finance minister in the government led by Prime Minister and Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny, said MPs from the Fine Gael and Labour parties should be allowed to vote freely on the matter, without the imposition of party discipline.

‘Environmental damage’ repentance

In a recent speech, Bartholomew, Ecumenical Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople, said: “Biodiversity is the work of divine wisdom and was not granted to humanity for its unruly control. By the same token, dominion over the Earth and its environs implies rational use and enjoyment of its benefits, and not destructive acquisition of its resources out of a sense of greed.

“Nevertheless, especially in our times, we observe an excessive abuse of natural resources,resulting in the destruction of the environmental balance of the planet’s ecosystems and generally of ecological conditions, so that the divinely-ordained regulations of human existence on Earth are increasingly transgressed.

“The invocation and supplication of the Church and us all to God as the Lord of lords and ruler of all for the restoration of creation are essentially a petition of repentance for our sinfulness in destroying the world instead of working to preserve and sustain its ever-flourishing resources reasonably and carefully.”

US Archbishop sorry for drink-driving

Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone apologised for an “error in judgment” after he was caught driving while under the influence of alcohol.

He said he felt “shame for the disgrace brought upon the Church and myself. I will repay my debt to society and ask for forgiveness.”

He was driving his mother home after having dinner with some friends. He admitted to being over California’s legal blood alcohol level.

He spent the night in jail, and was released the next day after he paying a $2,500 (€2,000) bond.

In October, Mgr Cordileone will be made Archbishop of San Francisco.

(Compiled by Fr Joe Borg)