ATHENS, Greece - The government on Friday defended a proposed law regulating artificial insemination that was condemned by the powerful Greek Orthodox Church as an effort to destroy traditional family values.
Church leader Archbishop Christodoulos also angered women's groups in expressing his opposition to the proposed legislation by accusing the feminist movement of seeking to "overthrow the natural and ethical order."
The legislation, which has not yet been debated or approved by Parliament, bans cloning, but allows some fetal-cell research. It also regulates in vitro fertilization, setting guidelines on anonymity of donors and allowing, in some cases, the use of sperm from a dead donor.
In vitro fertilization has been legal in Greece for decades, but the government proposed the legislation to address some questions posed by rapid developments in the field — including cloning and stem-cell research.
Greece's church is opposed to in vitro fertilization and any form of fetal-cell research. It claims the legislation would also allow same sex couples to conceive children.
"We have to protect the traditional family," Christodoulos said late Thursday as he demanded the Socialist government withdraw the legislation.
He was quoted in the media as blaming "the feminist movement" for promoting "ideological anti-Christian positions" and the "degenerate phenomena we see in the family."
Justice Minister Filipos Petsalnikos on Friday defended the legislation and said his government would not withdraw it from upcoming debate. He also said the legislation did not allow same-sex couples to have children.
"A basic goal of the legislation is reinforce, not weaken the family as it regulates the way that children can be acquired by parents who are at a reproductive age but unable to have children," Petsalnikos said.
Christodoulos has in the past accused the government of trying to undermine traditional family values and the role of religion in Greece, where more than 97 percent of the native-born population of 11 million people is baptized as Orthodox Christians.
Last year, the church tried and failed to revoke a decision stripping a religion entry from state identity cards.