Rome,
3 December 2015
Today,
Tuesday 3 February, the British House of Commons will debate an
alteration
to the 1990 Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act, which will allow
for the first time the creation of persons comprised of DNA from
three parents.
Besides
concerns about the safety of the scientific procedure known as
mitochondrial donation - which has never been allowed legally
anywhere - there are also ethical concerns that British
parliamentarians will have to consider.
In
one of the two techniques, pronuclear transfer, two embryos are
created and combined to produce a healthy embryo, resulting in the
destruction of the embryo created from the donor egg. The other
technique, maternal spindle transfer, involves the manipulation of
the egg cell outside of the womb, combining egg cells from two
different women.
British
Parliamentarian Lord Alton of Liverpool, the Convenor of the DHI's
Cross Party Working Group on Human Dignity, said: "It is
essential to voice support for those who suffer from mitochondrial
diseases and to ensure that medical care is always sufficient. At the
same time, it is equally important that scientific progress is in
line with human dignity, which it must serve, rather than vice versa.
It is not morally acceptable, and it can never be morally acceptable,
to destroy one person, harvesting their DNA for the needs of another
person, which one of these two methods permits. This is the fast road
to any of the futuristic dystopias one can find at any cinema."
The
ethical implications of the proposed methods for mitochondrial
donation include:
Embryo
destruction: In the case of pronuclear transfer, an embryo - a human
life at its earliest stage - is destroyed when its pronuclei are
removed and transferred to the healthy embryo, which has had its own
pronuclei removed. Neither embryo is being treated with dignity: the
healthy embryo is being bred and made to carry genetic material that
is not its own, while supplying healthy mitochondria.
Modifying
the germline: Both techniques create what can be called 'genetically
modified babies'. This may open the door to more possibilities of
modifying babies even before they are conceived or implanted.
Parenthood:
The notion of parenthood, of one mother and one father who have
produced their offspring together, is blurred. Furthermore,
conception is yet further divorced from the conjugal act.
DHI
Chairman Luca Volontè said of the forthcoming UK parliamentary
debate: "In modifying the person either at the embryonic stage
(by giving a living embryo new genetic information), or by modifying
the egg cells which, together with the sperm cells, are basic sex
cells that form new life, personhood is diluted, the human body is
commoditised and scientific practice gallops towards the
normalisation of eugenics. It is a sign of how far we have come that
in less than two generations, when IVF was first successfully tested
in 1978, people are now so inured to scientific 'advancements', many
can no longer see the massive evil latent hiding under the outer
aspect of 'something good'."
The
Dignitatis
Humanae Instituteaims
to uphold human dignity based on the anthropological truth that man
is born in the image and likeness of God and therefore has an innate
human dignity of infinite worth to be upheld. The Institute promotes
this understanding by supporting Christians in public life, assisting
them to present effective and coherent responses to increasing
efforts to silence the Christian voice in the public square.
