Benedict XVI recalled that while scientific advances in genetics have helped improve the diagnosis of diseases, they have also presented new challenges.

Benedict XVI
It is necessary to reiterate that any discrimination carried out by any power against persons, populations or ethnic groups on the basis of real or presumed genetics factors is an attack against all humanity.

He spoke to scientists, theologians and philosophers participating in an international congress on genetics in Rome organized by the Pontifical Academy for Life. For three days, experts from around the world studied "The New Frontiers of Genetics and the Risks of Eugenics."

The discussion focused on studying the practices of genetics that lead to considering that some unhealthy embryos are less useful than healthy ones and must be eliminated.

Msgr. Rino Fisichella 
The word eugenics seemed to be a word that pertained to the past but in fact it’s still valid because an eugenic mentality is growing and perhaps the greatest dangers is that although the term is not used,  the mentality that not all people have the same dignity is being assumed.

The participants were especially alarmed by the selection of embryos during in vitro fertilization because it eliminates those who have genetic diseases like cystic fibrosis or Down syndrome.

Msgr. Ignacio Carrasco
The case of children with Down syndrome. Today those children practically are no longer born because they eliminate the problem of Down syndrome by eliminated them, in this case not letting them live.

Msgr. Rino Fisichella 
These projects involve an ethics opinion that argues that it does provide supposedly a "normal" life for people. But normal has not yet being defined.

The president of the Pontifical Academy for Life denounced this mentality that states some are better than others and highlighted that nobody has the authority to define the rules of a normal life.

DG