Europe’s most audacious effort to protect life is a few thousand signatures away from forcing the European Parliament to schedule a debate on protecting every human life from conception.

The “One of Us” petition got a boost in May when Pope Francis endorsed it.

Every person, no matter how young, “deserves respect” according to the One of Us initiative that has garnered over 850,000 signatures. If it gathers 1 million signatories by November 1, the European Parliament may have to consider a ban on funding research that destroys human embryos.

The European Commission, the executive branch of the European Union (EU), would have to respond to the sponsors of One of Us under a new procedure created by the Lisbon Treaty. The Commission would table the item for discussion in the European Parliament.

Proponents say One of Us is about protecting the “dignity, the right to life and the integrity of every human being” including embryos. This is consistent with the European Court of Justice’s decision in the famous Br-stle v. Greenpeace case that, under EU directives, the results of research that destroys human embryos cannot be patented.