MOSCOW, September 19. /TASS/. The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) wants a biosafety law passed in Russia, which would include a ban on cross-border trade in human embryos, Priest Fyodor Lukyanov, Chairman of the Patriarchal Commission on Family Affairs and the Protection of Motherhood and Childhood, told TASS.

"There is a need for a law in general on biosafety, which would include <...> a ban on the trade of embryos. There should be a law that would eliminate this practice, as the country should not sell its children in any form, especially when they are at that stage of development," the priest said.

He emphasized that the church opposes this "immoral practice wholeheartedly" as it considers it to be on par with human trafficking.

At the opening of an exhibition in the State Duma (the lower house of parliament) dedicated to the "Family - the Basis of Peace" project, Lukyanov urged "drawing the legislator's attention to the cross-border embryo trade," which poses a "real threat to the country's biosecurity" and "reduces the nation's reproductive potential."