“Intermediate” or “Special Status” for the human embryo is invalid
By Dr. John P. Hubert MD, FACS
Advisor to Common Good
© CCWVA
Catholic Online
2/27/2006 - 8:15 AM PST
I. Introduction
This essay addresses the moral status of the human embryo. It asserts that on the basis of biology and metaphysics, the human embryo should be accorded full moral status, that is, inviolability. While this is also the position afforded it by the Catholic Church on the basis of divine revelation and elsewhere, the case will not be argued on that basis in this brief. Instead it will provide a critique of the so-called “intermediate” or “special status” which has been proposed by some ethicists including several of the members of the President’s Council on Bioethics. In so doing it will demonstrate why anything other than full moral status for the human embryo is biologically and philosophically untenable.
MORE...
