Free Republic

ROME — When Stephen K. Bannon was still heading Breitbart News, he went to the Vatican to cover the canonization of John Paul II and make some friends. High on his list of people to meet was an archconservative American cardinal, Raymond Burke, who had openly clashed with Pope Francis.In one of the cardinal’s antechambers, amid religious statues and book-lined walls, Cardinal Burke and Mr. Bannon — who is now President Trump’s anti-establishment eminence — bonded over their shared worldview. They saw Islam as threatening to overrun a prostrate West weakened by the erosion of traditional Christian values, and viewed...

SAN FRANCISCO — Cells from fetuses have “unique properties” that aid in healing, boasts a Swiss biopharmaceutical firm, in response to complaints that it uses fetal cell lines in skin-care products.A Christian watchdog group called Children of God for Life brought attention to the fact that the company, Neocutis, used the cell lines, derived from an abortion, in the products.“It’s absolutely deplorable,” said the Tennessee group’s founder and executive director, Debi Vinnedge. “It’s not even for humanitarian reasons. They are exploiting the remains of a deliberately slaughtered baby for nothing other than vanity.”Vinnedge usually concentrates her watchdog efforts on...

This article will clarify a certain dimension of the debate over embryo adoption and lead to the conclusion that a woman who chooses to have an orphaned embryo implanted in her womb (heterologous embryo transfer, which we'll call HET), cannot be morally approved.I have been a leader in the pro-life movement for over 30 years, and no one would more like to see all of the abandoned frozen embryos rescued. The nature of their in vitro conception, subsequent freezing and reduction to so-called "leftovers" constitutes a grave injustice.Many people, motivated by real charity, look to embryo adoption as a way...

Two weeks ago, headlines across the world announced the release of the Vatican’s official position on bioethics. Naturally, the Catholic Church’s stance on the destruction of human embryos, the creation of designer babies, and the like was greeted with scorn by liberal Catholics and by many medical professionals and scientists. But two things truly fascinate me about the release of this document. The first is its title: “Dignitas Personae”—or, in plain English: “On the Dignity of the Person.” Now that’s an interesting title for the Catholic Church’s official teaching on bioethics. Actually, it’s the perfect title because the question of...

Do the cautions or negative judgments on such developments indicate a suspicious attitude toward modern biotechnology in general? On the contrary, the document says that in making use of these new technological powers the human being “participates in the creative power of God” and acts as “the steward of the value and intrinsic beauty of creation.” It is because this power carries with it great responsibility that we must never misuse technology to demean human dignity, but always to serve the value and dignity of every person without exception. Misuse of genetic technology may make possible new forms of discrimination...

The Dignity of the Embryo Archbishop Salvatore Fisichella, spoke today in Rome with Register correspondent Edward Pentin about Dignitas Personae, the VaticanÂ’s new bioethics document. Archbishop Fisichella, who is president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, discussed some of the U.S. implications of the new document, and the focus it places on the dignity of the human embryo. HereÂ’s what he told the Register: How would you like this document to be received in the United States?Archbishop Salvatore Fisichella: I think that the document which talks about life and the dignity of the human person will be received in a...

  The Dignity of a Person: Vital Instruction from the Church December 19th, 2008 by Fr. Nicanor Pier Giorgio Austriaco O.P. On Friday, December 12, 2008, the Feast of our Lady of Guadalupe, the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) released its long-awaited document on bioethics that responds to “new problems regarding procreation” and “new procedures involving the manipulation of embryos and the human genetic patrimony.” (http://www.usccb.org/comm/Dignitaspersonae/Dignitas_Personae.pdf.  Called Dignitas Personae (The Dignity of a Person), the Instruction is seen as the sequel to Donum vitae (The Gift of Life), another document on bioethics published by the CDF over...

The Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith today released Dignitas Personae, a document which addresses a range of issues including stem cell therapies, embryo experimentation and infertility treatments. It reaffirms the Vatican's existing teachings, Donum Vitae (1987) and Evangelium Vitae (1995), and addresses new bioethical questions about issues such as hybrid embryos and human cloning. Dignitas Personae focuses on the dignity of the human embryo, and promotes biomedical research that is respectful of the dignity of every human being and procreation. Key principles it uses to determine whether new biomedical research is ethical include: "'The human being is to be...

Proclamation on biomedical science and reproductive medicine revised. The Vatican has said that researchers should not work with stem cells derived from embryos.Punchstock The Roman Catholic Church has reaffirmed its opposition to embryonic stem cell research in a document that updates its 20-year-old position on biomedical research and reproductive medicine. The instruction Dignitas Personae not only condemns embryonic stem cell research, and in vitro fertilization (IVF) but also formalizes its many previous positions including banning human cloning to produce embryonic stem cells, and human–animal cloned chimaeras. For Catholic researchers, the biggest impact of the new text is that for the...

Regarding the Instruction Dignitas PersonaeAim In recent years, biomedical research has made great strides, opening new possibilities for the treatment of disease, but also giving rise to serious questions which had not been directly treated in the Instruction Donum vitae (22 February 1987).  A new Instruction, which is dated 8 September 2008, the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, seeks to provide some responses to these new bioethical questions, as these have been the focus of expectations and concerns in large sectors of society.  In this way, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith seeks both...