Russian Church again leads the way in protecting the unborn

Moscow (Interfax) - The Moscow Patriarchate initiates a public discussion of the draft document on Inviolability of Life from Сonception, where it urges to set out the rights of embryo in the acting legislation.

"The Orthodox Church stresses that fundamental rights of embryo as a human personality should be set out in the legislation", the draft posted on the official website of the Russian Orthodox Church reads.

The Church also urges the state to guarantee the doctors' right to refuse making an abortion for the reasons of Christian conscience.

Authors of the church document insist that an embryo is a human being and it means that it has the right for life.

"Scientific experiments with embryos and their freezing is unacceptable. The fact that for thousands embryos an opportunity of development and life is substituted by experiments and death, undermines human dignity and violated the right for life," the document says.

Its authors also believe that today "there are no actual reasons" to use prenatal diagnostics as an opportunity to treat genetic diseases at such an early stage exists only hypothetically, and negative result received in course of such diagnostics in majority of cases leads to abortion.

The draft document on Inviolability of Life from Conception was prepared by the Inter-Council Presence Commission of the Russian Orthodox Church. Everyone can comment on it till September 30.