Madam, - Tom Moore's letter of November 23rd raises a number of serious questions.
Firstly, he claims that we are no more or no less than the chimpanzee, since the special status of either the human embryo or adult cannot be defended "scientifically". Who ever said that science has the capacity to say what constitutes human beings or to defend their status? What is disturbing about Dr Moore's claim is, in the first case, the exaggerated claims he makes for science. For the sake of our humanity, we must affirm that science is not the only source of knowledge or insight into reality. Common sense should be enough to recognize that, whatever our genetic relationship with the chimpanzee, the real difference is vast.
Starting with the intuitions of common sense, philosophers (non-Christian as well as Christian) probed the difference. Their moral and religious insights, constituting the wisdom tradition of humanity, became the basis of the laws of all civilisations marked by the humane treatment of our fellow human-beings.
Secondly, to make absolute claims about what science can and cannot defend is ridiculous. The simple fact is that science is constantly correcting its claims, one of the most recent being that the genetic difference between human beings and chimpanzees is greater than first thought.
Thirdly, the absolute claims of science lead inevitably to the denial of the claims of morality. The refusal of scientists to be bound by the moral insights of humanity has led to the most atrocious crimes. These include the experimentation on human beings (in particular young twins) in Auschwitz and other Nazi concentration camps. In the case of such inhuman experimentation, scientists first had to accept the assumption that no special status should be extended to certain kinds of people (the Jews, Roma, homosexuals, or those retarded in some way). Some claimed to find "scientific evidence" to justify such second-class status (such as the promoters of eugenics, and even Dr Down, who discovered the syndrome named after him).
A few years ago, the director of the Max Plank Institutes in Germany publicly apologised for the knowing co-operation of the top German scientists in the Nazi programme. Scientists, like all other human beings, need to be kept in check by the law, which in turn gets its force from moral principles grounded in the singular dignity of all human beings, be they at the embryonic or adult stage.
The recent ruling on frozen embryos has opened the door for scientists to experiment on human embryos on the spurious grounds that they are not in the womb and so not protected by the Constitution. In effect, Mr Justice McGovern has ruled that some human embryos are less human than others and so. This provides justification for whatever horrendous experiments scientist wish to make on them. The implications of this judgment for Irish law - and for our humanity - are rather frightening. - Yours, etc,
D. VINCENT TWOMEY SVD, Professor Emeritus of Moral Theology, Maynooth, Co Kildare.