The life of every human embryo must be protected by law, and also by doctors, said Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, Chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate.
“From a moral point of view, any manipulation of human embryos is unacceptable, because we recognize the human embryo as a person, even if it is still an undeveloped person,” Metropolitan Hilarion said in the Church and the World program, reports the press service of the Synodal Department for Church’s Relations with Society and Mass Media.
He added that the Russian Orthodox Church believes that “the life of every embryo must be protected by both the law and doctors.”
“We consider the use of human embryos to create certain tissues, the use of organs taken from human embryos, to be morally unacceptable, since this requires an abortion, and abortion is murder,” the archpastor noted.
The hierarch pointed out that the production of materials taken from human embryos on an industrial scale is absolutely unacceptable from a moral point of view. Moreover, he emphasized that the question of whether it is permissible or not to use certain cell lines in the manufacture of cosmetics or, for example, vaccines should be discussed in each specific case. At the same time, it should be taken into account what exactly was used, how, for what purposes, and so on.
As for the opinion of the Church on this issue, Metropolitan Hilarion said, “The Church has the right to assess phenomena that have a moral background,” and added that this does not mean interference in things that are within the competence of scientists or doctors.