Vatican forbids designer babies
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Designer babies, human/animal hybrids, cloning, stem cell research and a whole range of common biomedical innovations are forbidden, the Vatican said Friday in a document about procreation and genetic technologies.
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Th e Washington Times reports But gene therapies, some fertility treatments and possibly embryo
“adoption” are allowed, according to Dignitatis Personae, a 32-page
document. It was penned by Cardinal William J. Levada, the American who
heads the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican’s
doctrinal arm, and his staff.
The title, which means “the dignity of a person” in Latin, stresses
repeatedly why an embryo must be treated as a person even before
implantation on the uterine wall. It merits “unconditional respect”
from the moment of conception, which occurs as soon as an egg is
fertilized, thus creating a genetically distinct individual.
Th e Washington Post reports The sweeping 32-page document,
which comes from the Catholic Church’s highest rule-making authority
and has the approval of Pope Benedict, warns about the moral dangers of
a variety of procedures, including the freezing of unfertilized eggs
and embryos, the injection of sperm directly into eggs, and the genetic
testing of embryos to identify those with defects.
CNA reports Beginning with the words “the dignity of the person” or “Dignitas
Personae,” the aim of the three-part instruction is to provide
responses from the Church to new bioethical questions that didn’t exist
when the Church released her last biomedical document in 1987.
According to the CDF, the document seeks “both to contribute ‘to the
formation of conscience’ and to encourage biomedical research
respectful of the dignity of every human being and of procreation.”
Archbishop Luis Francisco Ladaria Ferrer, S.J., Secretary of the
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, explained at a press
conference at the Vatican today that “Dignitas Personae” carries the
weight of an official teaching of the Pope and “is of a doctrinal
nature.”