Human Beings As Signs of Contradiction
The human embryo, according to Catholic doctrine, is also a sign of contradiction. According to Catholic belief the human embryo is already a human being, as much as the human fetus and the new born child. And for Christians, a human being is made in the image and likeness of God. The fact that this belief and notion are highly contested by many quarters makes the human embryo, in the Catholic view, a sign of contradiction.
Most Rev. Elio Sgreccia, Vice President of the Pontifical Council for Life, said in an article entitled "The Embryo: A Sign of Contradiction":
- We need only look at the data bank of bioethical and medical writing on the subject to see how this is so. In the years 1970-1974 more than five hundred works dealing with the biomedical aspect of the question existed, and there were 27 works of a philosophical-theological character. In the years 1990-1994 there were nearly 4,200 works on the biomedical dimension of the subject and 242 on the philosophical-theological aspect of the debate. A quotation from one of the Fathers of the Church, Tertullian: "homo est qui venturus est." From the moment of fertilization we are in the presence of a new, independent, individualized being which develops in continuous fashion.
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