French now recognises human embryos as legal persons following a decision by the Cour de Cassation, France's highest appeals court. It ruled that three couples could register their miscarried foetuses to enable them to give them an official burial. Until now a foetus had to be viable before it could be registered -- older than 22 weeks of pregnancy or weighing more than 500 grams. The decision has been cheered by French Catholics, who believe human life begins at the moment of conception. "The Church's position is that we must act as if the embryo were a person," said the Archbishop of Paris, Cardinal André Vingt-Trois. "This means that a foetus has a status." However, the ruling will probably not affect the status of legal abortion in France, although abortion rights advocate Marie-Francoise Colombani, a columnist for the women's magazine Elle, said the court had opened a Pandora's box by trying to accommodate grieving parents. ~ Reuters, Feb 19