Roman Catholic Church bishops in Poland have threatened to excommunicate MPs who support state funding for IVF.
Archbishop Henryk Hoser, head of the Episcopal Expert Team on
Bioethics, said at the weekend that MPs who support IVF will be
excommunicated.
The government announced last week that legislation on state
funding for childless couples seeking IVF treatment will be ready soon,
though there are competing bills being prepared in parliament on the
extent of the funding. Poland currently has no clear laws on the
procedure
The Roman Catholic Church has yet to reveal which draft bill on IVF it will support.
In May this year, the Episcopal Council for Family Affairs
decided that MPs who support IVF will not be able to take communion. The
decision was criticized, however, by Prof. Franciszek Longchamps de
Berier, member of the Episcopal Expert Team on Bioethics.
“The destruction of embryos is the same askilling but it is not
the same as abortion. Therefore, it cannot be punished in the same way
as abortion. Bioethical issues are relatively new and the Church is
still reflecting on them,” said Longchamps de Berier.
In June, the Episcopate issued a statement saying that people
who perform in vitro cannot take communion until they do penance, but
the bishops did not mention politicians who vote for state funding of
IVF.
The ruling Civic Platform party has prepared two draft bills which are supposed to bring Polish legislation in line with the European Union's conventions and directives on bioethics.
One project was drafted by conservative Civic Platform MP
Jaroslaw Gowin who suggests that in vitro should be available only for
married couples. Another bill authored by Malgorzata Kidawa-Blonska, is
more liberal on the issue, expanding the amount of couples who could
take advantage of the funding.
Meanwhile, the opposition Law and Justice party has drafted two
bills banning in vitro completely. One of them, co-drafted by Civic
Platform’s coalition partner, the Polish Peasant’s Party, suggests that
doctors who perform in vitro should face prison.
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