Embryos Are Human Beings, Pope Insists

The Holy Father, addressing scholars participating a conference on the human embryo, has insisted that human embryos are not just "potential life", but human beings marked with God's image:

Vatican, Feb. 27 (CWNews.com) - Human embryos deserve the same protection as all other human beings, Pope Benedict XVI told an audience of scholars on February 27.

"The love of God does not distinguish between the newly-conceived infant still in its mother's womb, the baby, the youth, the grown adult or the elderly, because in each of them He sees the sign of His own image and likeness," the Holy Father said. He was speaking to participants in a conference on the human embryo, organized by the Pontifical Academy for Life.

The Vatican conference has drawn over 300 experts from around the world to discuss the status of the human embryo prior to implantation in the mother's womb. The Pope acknowledged that the topic is "fascinating but difficult," involving both scientific data and fundamental about the nature of the human person.

However, the Pope observed, the Bible gives clear guidance on the question, pointing to "the love of God toward all human beings, even before they take form in the mother's womb." God's love, the Pontiff continued, is not conditional, nor is it based on the personal traits of the individual. Every human person, regardless of condition or state in life, bears the image of God. "Human life is a good thing, always and definitively," he insisted.

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(emphasis added)