Top clergyman asks president not to sign IVF bill
PR dla Zagranicy
Nick Hodge
17.07.2015 15:59
Head of the Polish Episcopate Archbishop Stanisław Gądecki has asked President Bronisław Komorowski not to sign a bill that regulates public funding of IVF treatment.
Head of the Polish Episcopate Archbishop Stanislaw Gądecki. Photo: wikimedia commons/bialo-zielony
In a letter sent to the president, the archbishop insisted that “this appeal is not only my right but my obligation.”
The bill was narrowly approved by the Senate last week without amendments, having been passed in Poland's lower house of parliament on 25 June.
It allows for the funding of IVF treatment for couples who are struggling to have children and have exhausted other methods of conception.
The Church had called on MPs and senators to search their consciences and vote against the legislation.
Chief opposition party Law and Justice vehemently opposed the legislation, with one senator claiming that it “opened the gates to hell.”
Archbishop Gądecki has appealed to Komorowski either to not sign the bill or to send it back to parliament or to Poland's Constitutional Court.
In reference to the freezing of embryos, the archbishop argued that the Polish constitution insists on the “absolute protection of human life.”
"Disciples of Christ must always be a voice for those who are denied rights,” he argued.
President Komorowski's successor Andrzej Duda, formerly of the conservative Law and Justice party, is due to be sworn in on 6 August. (nh)