Biomedicine and bioethics

Starting from numerous challenging questions posed by modern medicine to bioethics, the author outlines fundamental and concrete answers contained in the new Instruction on Respect jor Human Lije in Its Origin an the Dignity oj Procreation (Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Vatican City, 1987). Two innovations expressed within this document warrant particular attention. First, the human being from the moment of conception is afforded equal status and rights to those of a living person, although nowhere is it expressly stated th a t the embryo is a person. Second, a clear and express negative judgment is rendered of the long-standing FIVET procedure, concerning which there has heretofore been a void in official church scholarship, with theological opinion being divided. Although »Instruction« answers only a few questions and does not encompass the entire field of bioethics — as previously prom ised — and although it provokes differ in commentaries, it does provide clearer guidelines for further investigations and practical applications