Despite all the criticism being made of Italian Prime Minister Chevalier Silvio Berlusconi, he has been one of the foremost leaders in the recent Italian political scene.

Though his party does not have ‘Christian Democracy’ at its masthead, some very important laws have been enacted during his time in power which follow closely natural law and are very similar to Catholic morals. One such law is at the forefront of the European defence of embryonic life. While in that seat of democracy, Great Britain, embryonic life is afforded very little protection, in Italy under Berlusconi human life is protected from inception. In Great Britain, so-called ‘research’ involving the destruction of the human embryo is allowed until 14 days after fertilisation or until the very first beginnings of the vertebra appears, whichever comes first. Italian law is much more humane to these defenceless creatures. The Italian law of 2003 attributes to the human embryo the right of a person from the moment of fertilisation.

This means that any research which might injure the human embryo is completely banned. The Italian law rules out research on embryos left over after IVF, as well as the creation of embryos specifically for research purposes. Therefore, the cloning of embryos for embryonic stem-cell research is forbidden. Other European countries have more lax laws, even those with parties belonging to the Christian Democratic EPP, which bring shame on this continent, which is willing to sacrifice human lives, and defenceless ones at that, in the name of ‘progress’ and the profit motive.

Guze Bonett

Marsalforn