The Indignity of Science

[Aryan Warrior]

The Indignity of Science
January 31st, 2008
Author Robert Roy Britt

The Pope has reiterated his plea that scientific progress be based on “ethical-moral principles.” The condemnations are sweeping.

According to Reuters, the Pope said: Practices like freezing embryos, suppression of embryos in multiple pregnancies, embryonic stem cell research, the prospect of human cloning and artificial insemination outside the body had “shattered the barriers meant to protect human dignity.”

All scientific endeavors are not created equal, however. Few people are eager to see human cloning, and few reputable scientists have any desire to try it. Yet embryonic stem cell research, as most scientists envision it, is done with cast-off embryos — nobody is stealing a life for the sake of science — and promises to improve and extend lives of millions of miserable suffers of the most debilitating human ills. Tell a sufferer of Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s that this research represents an indignity.

As for test tube babies, perhaps the children born by the method over the past three decades, and their parents and brothers and sisters, should weigh in whether their creation represents an indignity.

If we’re to lump embryonic stem cell research, artificial insemination and human cloning into the same category of moral indignation, then apparently there are no lines and so we need to add everything else that might affect the creation of human life, from aphrodisiacs to ****, Caesareans to painkillers. And while you’re at it, toss in a host of techniques, medicines and procedures that science has developed to improve health, extend life or otherwise make the world slightly less miserable than it was a century ago.

http://www.livescience.com/blogs/2008/01/31/the-indignity-of-science/

[Aryan Warrior]

Pope says some science shatters human dignity
Thu Jan 31, 2008 9:57am EST  Email | Print | Share| Reprints | Single Page | Recommend (-) [-] Text

By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict said on Thursday that embryonic stem cell research, artificial insemination and the prospect of human cloning had "shattered" human dignity.

In an address to members of the Vatican department on doctrinal matters, Benedict said the Church had a duty to defend the "great values at stake" in the field of bioethics.

The speech was the latest in a series in which the conservative Pope has told his listeners that scientific progress should not be accepted uncritically.

Benedict, who headed the same department for years before his election in 2005, said the Church was not against scientific progress but wanted it based on "ethical-moral principles".

He said this included total respect for the human being as a person "from conception until natural death," and respect for the natural transmission of life through sexual intercourse.

Practices like freezing embryos, suppression of embryos in multiple pregnancies, embryonic stem cell research, the prospect of human cloning and artificial insemination outside the body had "shattered the barriers meant to protect human dignity", he said.

"When human beings in the weakest and most defenseless state of their existence are selected, abandoned, killed or used as pure 'biological material,' how can one deny that they are being treated not as 'someone' but as 'something,'" he said.

Such practices "questioned the very concept of the dignity of man," he said in the speech to the department known as the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Widespread interest in medicine by the general public, who get most of their information from the media, had made it even more imperative for the Church to take a stand, he said.

Embryonic stem cell research involves the destruction of embryos. Scientists hope to use stem cells to transform medicine, providing regenerative treatments for injuries and seeking new insights into diseases like cancer and AIDS.

Last year scientists reported they had tricked ordinary skin cells into behaving like embryonic stem cells.

The Pope said the Church "appreciates and encourages" research on stem cells that come from other parts of the body and do not involve embryos or their destruction.

He rejected accusations from critics who say the Church is an obstacle to science and human progress, saying growing concern about cloning and other practices showed it was right to raise the alarm.

It was the Pope's latest foray into scientific issues. On Monday he warned against the "seductive" powers of science, saying it was important that science did not become the sole criteria for goodness.

U.S. Cardinal William Levada, Benedict's successor as head of the doctrinal department, said it was mulling the possibility of preparing a new Vatican document on bioethical issues.

(Editing by Michael Winfrey)

http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSL3189220620080131?feedType=RSS&feedName=scienceNews&rpc=22&sp=true�