Pope Condemns Human Cloning and Arrogance of Man

My Way News ^ | 7/22/04 | Reuters

[wagglebee]

CASTELGANDOLFO, Italy (Reuters) - Pope John Paul on Sunday condemned human cloning as an arrogant attempt to improve on God's creation.

"The sense of power that every technical progress inspires in man is well known," the pope said in a message sent from his summer residence in Castelgandolfo to a meeting of prominent Catholic cultural, political and business leaders in the Italian city of Rimini.

"The attempt by man to appropriate the source of life by experimenting with human cloning is example enough," he said in a message sent at the start of the week-long event.

The comments come less than two weeks after British scientists were given permission to clone human embryos for medical research -- believed to be the first such license granted in Europe.

The pope said medical research should not try to "manipulate" human beings "according to a project considered with arrogance better than that of the Creator himself."

"The way taught by Christ is another: it is that of respect for human beings," he said, urging ethically responsible science.

The Vatican has repeatedly condemned all attempts at human cloning, comparing it to the experiments carried out by Nazis in World War II.

[independentmind]

.

[lelio]

The pope said medical research should not try to "manipulate" human beings "according to a project considered with arrogance better than that of the Creator himself."

Next up on the Rage Against Technology tour: LASIK surgery.

[Clintonfatigued]

Good for the Pope. Once again, he said exactly what he needed to say. Here's a scary thought: what if a male clone and a female clone marry and have a child? The people engaged in cloning are opening a medical and ethical can of worms that the human race could never be prepared to deal with. Cloning's repercussions could never end. So it must never begin.

Pope John Paul II is without question the greatest pope of the 20th. century.

[Ronaldus Magnus]

bump

[CAPTAIN PHOTON]

You'd think the church would like Virgin Births...or does it want a monopoly?

[NYer]

Pope John Paul II is without question the greatest pope of the 20th. century.

"Finally, careful consideration should be given to the danger of this power passing into the hands of those public authorities who care little for the precepts of the moral law. Who will blame a government which in its attempt to resolve the problems affecting an entire country resorts to the same measures as are regarded as lawful by married people in the solution of a particular family difficulty? Who will prevent public authorities from favoring those contraceptive methods which they consider more effective? Should they regard this as necessary, they may even impose their use on everyone. It could well happen, therefore, that when people, either individually or in family or social life, experience the inherent difficulties of the divine law and are determined to avoid them, they may give into the hands of public authorities the power to intervene in the most personal and intimate responsibility of husband and wife."
HUMANAE VITAE

Catholic Ping - let me know if you want on/off this list

[stop_fascism]

I don't know how you measure these things but Pius XII and John XXIII were also truly great popes.

[JenB]

I don't agree with cloning, but how is that a scary thought?

[BlazingArizona]

Pope John Paul on Sunday condemned human cloning as an arrogant attempt to improve on God's creation.

Speaking of arrogance, the Pope needs to clean his own house before interfering with the work of science. Whole dioceses are filing backruptcy because too many clerics have been advocates of "no child's behind left alone".

[asgardshill]

Whole dioceses are filing backruptcy because too many clerics have been advocates of "no child's behind left alone".

Ouch. Gotta remember that one.

[diamond6]

Does a clone have a soul?

[AlbionGirl]

I haven't been able to fully process why cloning is bad. I know that it can lead to a goal of perfecting the species and that that could be playing with fire, but cloning is still an act of creation, which I'm not sure in and of itself is evil.

I see abortion as evil without the slightest bit of trouble, but that's the taking of a life, cloning seems to be the opposite.

The Pope, however has a 'listen to me' problem when he makes any pronouncements, and the problem is that he is not viewed as having employed the same vigor in confronting the pederasty scandal in the midst of his own Church.

Maybe I missed it, but I don't remember an elaborate missive issued by the Pope himself addressing this issue with the kind of vigor it needed. The only thing I remember is him saying something to the effect that harming the young was bad, and I'm paraphrasing obviously, because when he does speak, he speaks eloquently. I don't think he realizes, perhaps because he's ill, the blow the Church took with the revelations of pederasty. It is not just another sin, and while I may not be a fan of Corsi's hyperbole concerning this issue, the points he made are not very easy to dispute.

There is a rotting from within, that I'm not sure they can turn around any time too soon.

[A.A. Cunningham]

and I'm paraphrasing obviously

Obviously

[Clintonfatigued]

There's no telling exactly what that clone baby will turn out to be. And what if, because it's not fully human, it's immune system turns out to be different from a human baby?

[AlbionGirl]

I said maybe I missed it. But was what you've linked to made public in the same way this pronouncement on cloning has been? I don't remember seeing that in the news, I only remember seeing a summary which spoke of his addressing the harm caused to the young.

[this_ol_patriot]

What if they clone soldiers or workers, put just enough brains in to do the job but otherwise they would be sterile human automatons with no emotions or independent thought, kind of like some democrats. They could clone willing sexual slaves, woman whose only purpose is to please men or maybe the other way around. Right now we can't do this but what of the future?

[He Rides A White Horse]

Next up on the Rage Against Technology tour: LASIK surgery.

I doubt that.........and I'm not Catholic either. I know where you're coming from, though.

[He Rides A White Horse]

I know where you're coming from, though.

....it's not good, either.

[Jeff Chandler]

>>Pope John Paul II is without question the greatest pope of the 20th. century.<<

"The best Pope ever."