THE SEVEN HOPES OF life by PRO F JÉRÔME LEJEUNE Professor Jérôme Lejeune was president of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children from 1987 until his death in 1994. He gave this address at the Family Congress in Brighton in 1990. In preparing it for publication, care has been taken to maintain the spoken character of the presentation in a desire to more faithfully convey the Professor’s message as well as the style of his delivery.
you reproduce a statue, what is reproduced is not the matter of the statue because the replica is made of something else than the original. - What is re produced is information imprinted in the matter by the genius of the sculptor. Then all genetics is about discovering what produces the animation of matter. Because matter can be animated. We are animatedmatter.Andif Icould,Iwouldsaythat chose the title of this talk, because I think whatwe matters is not matter. What matters is what havetofaceaverycuriousphenomenon.Today, makesinformationsothatmattercanbeanimated. human intelligence is, so to speak, submerged bybeverysimpleingenetics,Iwouldsaythatin Andto two contrary waves. One is a marvellous wave of lifethereisamessage.Andif thismessageishuman understanding.Everydayittellsusmoreaboutthe then this life is a human life. Matter, if animated marvel of nature and every day we discover more byahumannature,willbeabletobuildabodyin whichbewildersus.Theotherwaveisanominous whichaspiritwillmanifestitself insidetheflesh. one.It’sawaveof obscurantism,anditseemstosay Thatisgenetics.Thatisthedefinition-of ahu that the more we know about genetics, about the manbeing.Butnow,if spiritreallyanimatesmatter mechanismof life,thelessweknowabouthuman which is the core of our science of genetics we have nature,aboutwhatisahuman.AndImustsaythat towonderwhetherthegiftsof theSpiritcouldnot in both waves British people are playing a leading help us to understand this state of life when there role,inscience,asIwillexplainlater; - and unfortu are sevengiftsof theSpirit.AndIwouldliketowish natelyalso,notonlyaretheBritishscientists inof thethemtoyou,sothatmyfirstwishwouldbe each forefront of the good wave of understanding, but bewithyou. thatwisdom theBritishlawmakersareintheforefront - ofYou thehave di probablyheardinthiscountrythatlast sasterintheobscurantistwave.Andif Iweretotell yearwe[inFrance]hadaveryimportantcentennial you,whatisyourresponsibilitytowardsthefamily, ceremony about les droits de l'homme – the rights of towards the future of mankind, in front ofman. those Well, you have probably not been told that twowavesof understandingandobscurantism,my twenty-one years after they were proclaimed o{ wishwouldbeverysimpleindeed.Itwouldbe:cially, rule, aphilosopherproposedtotheFrenchsenate Britannia,overthosetwowaves. undertheNapoleonicEmpire,thatalawshouldbe Buttohelpyouruleoverthosewaves,Iwould enactedforbiddingdoctorstosuzocatebetweentwo liketoremindyouof somethingvery - simple. Liv people azected by rabies. Twenty-one mattresses ingmatterdoesnotexist.Mattercannotliveyears atall. aftertheproclamationof therightsof man, Matter cannot even be reproduced at all. When
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