Genetically Defective Embryos’ Right to Live: “There can be no selection between handicapped and non-handicapped life”
This is the opinion of the Christian government of the state of Bavaria and of a stong minority of the government of Germany. Pre-implantation genetic diagnosis of embryos to be implanted into women in fertility treatment should be outlawed.
Even though preventable, without abortion, and without having less offspring, women should be obliged bear defective children. These children will have a life of suffering, make their family suffer and be a burden to society. By simple pre-implantation genetic testing all this suffering could be avoided and instead a happy productive child could be born.
Religion prefers genetically damaged children to healthy children
I think only the twisted mind of religion could come up with such a perverted idea of how to create suffering on this earth. All this in the name of the rights of defective embryos! But, instead, a healthy embryo, already available, and ready to be implanted, will be discarded and distroyed.
German Government Divided over Calls for Embryo Protection
Artificial insemination: Politicians want new legislation to ban genetic testing of embryos.
Maria Böhmer of the CDU, a senior official in Merkel’s Chancellery, is also calling for a rapid ban on PGDs. “There can be no selection between handicapped and non-handicapped life,” Böhmer said. The politician argued that it would be impossible to place limits on the selection of traits once doctors were permitted to do PGD tests.
Following a federal court decision that would allow pre-implantation genetic diagnosis procedures in Germany, a number of conservative politicians are calling for a tightening of German law to ensure that “selection” of embryos cannot take place.
A growing number of conservative politician in Germany are rallying for a swift prohibition on genetic testing of embryos produced via artificial insemination prior to implantation in a mother’s womb. The politicians with Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), are reacting to a ruling last Tuesday by the Federal Court of Justice that such procedures were not in violation of the country’s Embryo Protection Law.
“We need a swift change in the law to make clear that pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) does not lead to selection,” said Markus Söder, the health minister for the state of Bavaria. Söder, a member of the CSU, said he had sympathy for future parents who would want to do this, but that it was unacceptable that embryos could be destroyed through PGD procedures.
Söder has been one of the most prominent critics of the plan by German Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger and her business-friendly Free Democratic Party to immediately permit gynaecologists to start using PGD as a result of the court ruling. The FDP shares power as the junior coalition partner in Merkel’s government. Söder has criticized the fact that genetic screening inevitably leads to human embryos being chosen based on genetic criteria.
“This goes to the core of our Christian worldview,” Söder said. “There can be no compromises.”
‘There Can Be No Selection’
In its ruling last week, the court said PGD tests do not violate the country’s Embyro Protection Law. Under the protection law, which has been on the books since 1991, those who use embryos in a way that does not promote their survival, such as scientific research, can be prosecuted and sentenced to up to three years in prison. However, noting that the aim of PGD testing is healthy pregnancies, the court ruled that embryos can be screened for serious genetic defects before implantation in the mother.
Maria Böhmer of the CDU, a senior official in Merkel’s Chancellery, is also calling for a rapid ban on PGDs. “There can be no selection between handicapped and non-handicapped life,” Böhmer said. The politician argued that it would be impossible to place limits on the selection of traits once doctors were permitted to do PGD tests.
However, German Education and Research Minister Annette Schaven of the CDU said she believed it was too early to discuss changing the laws. Schavan is instead calling for the court decision to be reviewed by the German Ethics Council, an independent body comprised of scientific, medical, theological, ethical, social and economic experts who provide opinions to the government on issues in those areas. She said that ethics on genetic testing must take into consideration Germany’s law protecting embryos as well as the constitution. Meanwhile, the head of the CDU’s party group in parliament, Volker Kauder, has said he wants to start discussions over a possible ban on pre-implantation genetic diagnosis at a meeting of the party in early December.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,706040,00.html
http://freeinternetpress.com/story.php?sid=26255 (repost, in case the original link goes away)
Google translation of German FAZ article
http://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/medizin/0,1518,705997,00.html German
Religion prefers genetically damaged children to healthy children
I think only the twisted mind of religion could come up with such a perverted idea of how to create suffering on this earth. All this in the name of the rights of embryos! But, instead, a healthy embryo will be discarded and distroyed.
God Himself aborts 80% of fertilized human eggs
It must be said: the great majority of fertilized human eggs never turn into pregnancy. They either don’t even implanted, or suffer spontaneous abortion. For the sake of avoid a few damaged children, nature aborts the majority of fertilized ovi.
Proof: why does a women who has sex every day need almost a year to become pregnant? Even though she has ovulation once a month with several days of chance to get pregnant? This is why. Most fertilized eggs never become a pregnancy. God is wiser then His religious dogmatic followers.
Spontaneous abortion is a very common experience for women. It is estimated that between 25-50% of conceptions spontaneously abort. Researchers do not have an exact figure due to the fact that when this occurs very early on, many women do not know that they were ever pregnant.
The exact numbers need more research. But be it 40% or 90% of spontanous abortions: God is the worlds greatest abortionist! Sorry to say that. But he does it for good reasons. To maintain genetic health!
Yet the same religious conservatives oppose a guaranteed minimum income, or welfare in general. I would prefer euthanasia over slow starvation.
Incidentally, people with controversial views should at the vanguard of guaranteed minimum income, and welfare in general, as they are more likely to lose their job, or have trouble getting one. Yes, it might help your enemies too, but they have rich friends that are hurt by welfare. People with controversial views do not have rich friends.