Posted on 09/07/2007 12:08:36 PM PDT by NYer
Britain's step towards the creation of human-animal hybrids has been condemned by the Vatican as a "monstrous act against human dignity".
Days after the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority agreed in principle to license experiments for research, the Vatican's Bishop Elio Sgreccia accused the quango of crumbling "when confronted by requests from a group of scientists", who, he said, were "absolutely against morality".
Two teams of scientists hope to be able to create stem cells from their work that could unlock the secrets of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease.
The so-called chimeras will be 99 per cent human and one per cent cow, and will be destroyed after 14 days.
A final decision from the HFEA is expected in November.
Bishop Sgreccia said the ruling crossed an important moral rubicon.
"That frontier, of the crossroads of distinct species, has been overstepped with the go-ahead of the British Government," he said.
Catholic leaders in England and Wales have also expressed grave concern.
How horrible.
Where is the Primate of All England? He’s probably writing another book for his book club.
Where is the Defender of the Faith? She’s probably meeting with her PR staff.
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6. Target Cells ReproduceHuman insulin protein molecules produced by bacteria are gathered and purified. The process of purifying and producing cow and pig insulin has been greatly reduced or eliminated. |
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http://www3.iptv.org/exploremore/ge/what/insulin.cfm
“Isolate Gene”, yet another personal attack. Come and get me.
It looks like the geneticists already got to him...
Cordially,
And this is ok because 99.9% human isn’t quite human. Like a fetus should get special status before it is more than a dividing embryo. What an almost slippery slope.
You could cross Howard Dean with a jackass and no one would notice the difference.
You’d think that the Pope would show more tolerance for the Kennedy clan....
You’d think that the Pope would show more tolerance for the Kennedy clan....
And ugly, too.
The organism will be destroyed because the 1% cow component will fart in a studenous and horrific manner that will dramatically increase Global Warming......
I don’t believe this has ever been accomplished, or ever will. There is a difference between human cell division and all other mammals. As I remember it has to do with the “spindle” in the cell nucleus.
I believe the correct ratio would be 99.9% human and 0.1% cow.
Personhood ping...
Today, 0.1% cow, tomorrow - 0.5% pig, the next day - 0.8% monkey, etc. The point here, quite simply, is that this is nothing more than destruction of human life, regardless of the percentage, in favor of a blended life of human and animal.
HUMANAE VITAE
Though it is true that sometimes it is lawful to tolerate a lesser moral evil in order to avoid a greater evil or in order to promote a greater good," it is never lawful, even for the gravest reasons, to do evil that good may come of it (18)—in other words, to intend directly something which of its very nature contradicts the moral order, and which must therefore be judged unworthy of man, even though the intention is to protect or promote the welfare of an individual, of a family or of society in general. Consequently, it is a serious error to think that a whole married life of otherwise normal relations can justify sexual intercourse which is deliberately contraceptive and so intrinsically wrong.
HUMANAE VITAE
Just DISGUSTING!!!!! It’s a wonder that these “scientists” have any souls!
what is the law?
two legs good, four legs bad.
teeman
The law is whatever some judge says it is. The judges are more important than the Prez and Congress in our society.
“How horrible”.
Yes it is horrible.
BTTT!
Bump. Creepy stuff. Thank God once more for our Catholic friends.
Investigators argue that this macabre norm is needed because of the lack of human ovums for research. In response Bishop Sgreccia explained that up to now, international law prohibited this kind of genetic manipulation “because of the offense against human dignity” that it constitutes, “because of the risk of producing monsters” and “because of the morally high significance.” He said the British government had “caved into a request from a group of scientists that it seems to me goes against the will of the majority and certainly against the morality of not only of Catholics but also of other religious groups and defenders of life, and against all rational morality, which up to now has been quite clear in all of the international treaties.” Bishop Sgreccia said the scientists’ justifications were “mere excuses” for defending the indefensible and that experiments that are inhumane and illicit “cannot be carried out, not even with the hope of achieving a degree of success.”
“Success, if it exists, should come through human means. Good should be achieved through decent means; otherwise we are applying pure Machiavellian ideology to science and to scientific experimentation when what is at stake is human dignity,” he emphasized. Likewise, the president of the Pontifical Academy for Life recalled that experimentation on a living human being and its subsequent elimination has up to now only occurred in concentration camps. These experiments were forbidden by the Nuremberg Codes and the Helsinki Declaration. It’s important to emphasize that even though some labs are going to carry them out, that does not make them licit,” he said.
Bishop Peter Smith of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, also weighed in on the unprecedented ruling saying, “Human begins have one sole nature, specifically separate from animals,” and therefore nobody should wonder if it is “correct to exceed the limits of the species and try to mix human and animal natures.” “Instead of promoting this kind of ethically problematic research, why not encourage research with adult stem cells which is not controversial?” the bishop asked. “The Catholic Church is not against this kind of research and encourages that which is done with stem cells extracted from the blood and from the umbilical cord,” he stressed.
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