VATICAN: Catholic officials have condemned the recent cloning of human embryos, with Pope John Paul's bioethics adviser calling it a repeat of what the Nazis tried to do in concentration camps.
"You can't kill human life in the hope of finding medicines to save other lives," said Mgr Elio Sgrecia, vice-president of the Vatican's Pontifical Academy for Life. "The scientists are saying: 'First I'll clone you. Then I'll kill you.' This is not a victory, but it is stepping on human life twice." South Korean scientists announced this week that they had cloned several human embryos and extracted stem cells from one. They were the first researchers to prove they had cloned a human embryo and said they did it for purposes of therapeutic cloning.
The Catholic Church condemns all forms of research on embryos that leads to their destruction. Stem cells, which can be taken from embryos, are capable of developing into cell types that make up the body. Scientists believe they can lead to cures for diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, diabetes, spinal cord injuries and cancer.
Stem cells are found throughout the body, but some scientists say adult stem cells are difficult to pinpoint and hard to work with.
Mgr Sgrecia, who also heads an ethics centre at a leading Catholic medical school in Rome, said stem cells taken from umbilical cords or adults should be used for research instead because the process did not involve the destruction of life.
"There is no proof that stem cells taken from embryos are better for cures than those taken from adults," he said. "Some scientists are filling people with false hopes while at the same time committing crimes because creating an embryo to suppress it is a technological but inhuman game."
- (Reuters)