Rome plans new document on bioethics

BY STAFF REPORTER
THE VATICAN plans to issue a new document on bioethics that addresses human cloning, stem-cell research and other issues. informed sources have said.
The Vatican instruction. prepared by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, was scheduled to be published on December 12, the sources said. A Vatican press conference is planned for its release.
The document was designed to examine ethical issues in biological research and healthcare that have emerged in recent years.
When members of the doctrinal congregation met in a plenary session last January, American Cardinal William Levada. the congregation prefect, said much of their discussion focused on the field of bioethics.
At that time. the cardinal hinted that a document was in the works. He said it might examine new therapeutic options and some ethical problems that were not explicitly considered by two previous Church documents: the doctrinal congregation's instruction Donum Vitae ("The Gift of Life") in 1987 and Pope John Paul II's encyclical Evangeliurn Vitae ("The Gospel of Life") in 1995.
Pope Benedict XVI was prefect of the doctrinal congregation when both those documents were published.
Addressing the congregation in January the Pope said the new ethical problems included the freezing of human embryos, the selective reduction of embryos, preimplant diagnosis, research on embryonic stem cells and attempts at human cloning.
The Pope said the starting point for the Church's reflection remained the same: "The two fundamental criteria for moral discernment in this field are unconditional respect for the human being as a person from the moment of conception to natural death, [and] respect for the originality of the transmission of human life through the acts proper to spouses."
Since the congregation's last plenary session in January Britain has approved a number of scientific practices that are strongly opposed by the Church.
The Government-backed Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill allowed scientists to create humananimal hybrid embryos and so-called "saviour siblings" — children created to aid a sick brother or sister.
The hybrid embryos will mainly be created by transferring the nuclear of a human cell into an empty animal cell in order to counter a shortage of embryonic stem cells for research.
Meanwhile, pro-life campaigners in America fear that Barack Obarna is planning to reverse a ban on federal funding of embryonic stem-cell research. He is currently reviewing the executive orders of outgoing President George W Bush to decide which ones he would like to overturn.