Cardinal Backs Embryos’ Demise
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LONDON — The leader of England’s Roman Catholics on Wednesday backed the imminent destruction of about 3,000 frozen human embryos at fertility clinics in Britain as the only way out of an “appalling dilemma.”
“I believe these frozen embryos are frozen human life, but I believe they should be . . . allowed to die and then disposed of in a dignified manner,” Cardinal Basil Hume, the top Catholic prelate in England and Wales, told BBC radio.
The embryos, the products of in vitro fertilization, are to be destroyed today under a 1990 law that says they must be disposed of after five years unless donors consent to freeze them for up to another five years.
The Vatican’s newspaper has condemned the embryos’ disposal as a “prenatal massacre.” Hume reiterated Catholic opposition to the laboratory production and freezing of embryos.
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