British archbishop says decision on designer babies 'deeply flawed'

Published: 2004-07-26

MANCHESTER, England (CNS) -- A British archbishop said the government's decision to allow the creation of so-called designer babies is "deeply flawed" and must be reversed. Britain's Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority announced July 21 that it would allow the screening of human embryos so that prospective parents can pick and choose which embryos will be implanted and allowed to be born in order to help a seriously ill sibling. Archbishop Peter Smith of Cardiff, Wales, said the decision "abandons the foundational moral principle that human lives should never be used as a mere means to an end." He said, "Once we allow a human life to be deliberately produced, and then selected or destroyed simply to benefit another, we have lost our ethical bearings." The archbishop, chairman of the Department of Christian Responsibility and Citizenship of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales, said that medical science needed to consider whether a procedure was "morally right," not just "technologically possible."

Copyright (c) 2004 Catholic News Service /U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method, in whole or in part without the prior written authority of Catholic News Service .