Thursday, October 7, 2010

Archbishop Allen Vigneron defends the human embryo

In an op-ed for the Detroit Free Press, Archbishop Allen Vigneron, points out the disconnect between how someone who assaults a human embryo in the womb can be punished while someone who kills a human embryo in a petri dish is praised.
Embryos are the genesis of human life, and it is morally unacceptable to intentionally destroy them, even if the scientist is trying to cure a debilitating disease or parents are responding to a difficult challenge in their family life. The country we live in defends human rights at home and abroad. That defense must extend to the laboratory.

In Michigan's Compiled Laws, the fetal protection act is precise on punishing individuals who harm or kill a fetus -- or embryo! -- during an intentional assault.

How can there be such a disconnect with what happens in an assault case and what occurs in a laboratory when a human life is destroyed? The person who harmed an embryo in an assault is charged with a felony. The person who destroys an embryo in a petri dish is held harmless and likely considered some sort of medical pioneer. Yet the results were the same: two fewer people in the world who had no power to stop what was happening to them and had no voice in their demise.

FULL STORY