Speaker highlights ethical problems of embryonic stem-cell research

Published: 2004-05-25

ST. PAUL, Minn. (CNS) -- Embryonic stem-cell research and therapeutic cloning are always unethical because they "create life precisely to destroy it," a priest told members of the medical, legal and scientific communities at the Catholic Medical Association's conference in St. Paul. About 160 people, including doctors, nurses, hospital administrators, lawyers, clergy and students, attended the conference May 8 to discuss how they might collaborate on life issues common to their disciplines. Participants heard talks on bioethics, cloning, embryo research, intrauterine medicine and reproductive technologies. Father Tadeusz Pacholczyk, who has a doctorate in neuroscience and is an associate pastor at St. Patrick Parish in Falmouth, Mass., told participants there is a lot of excitement about the potential for stem-cell therapy to cure diseases, but he cautioned against unethical uses of stem cells that destroy life, such as embryonic stem-cell research and therapeutic cloning. "The curing of disease is certainly a very good end, one that the Roman Catholic Church actively and vigorously supports," he said, "but even very good ends cannot ever justify the use of intrinsically disordered or evil means."

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