'Gradual' Protection of Life Slammed as Insufficient

SALZBURG, Austria, DEC. 19, 2002 (Zenit.org).- Archbishop Emeritus Andreas Laun of Salzburg rejected directives issued by a group of Austrian doctors calling for only «gradual protection of prenatal life.»

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«Why gradual?» Archbishop Laun asked in a statement published Tuesday. «If the fetus is not yet a person, why is there talk of the protection of life? However, if the fetus is already a person, why must the protection of life be gradual?»

Addressing the concept expressed in the doctors’ document on abortion practiced up to 22 weeks of gestation, Archbishop Laun said: «To speak of gradual protection is illusory. According to this principle, a fetus with serious handicaps has no juridical or ethical protection, as its life depends exclusively on the will of the mother and the doctors.»

«Was not a similar differentiation made between persons in the past according to their capacity to work, with fatal consequences?» he asked.

«Systems that consent to abortion no longer have any pretense to call themselves ‘law,'» Archbishop Laun warned. «Let us try to change our mentality before it is too late.»

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