National Catholic Bioethics Center moves from Boston to Philadelphia

Published: 2004-12-23

PHILADELPHIA (CNS) -- The National Catholic Bioethics Center, which grapples with issues such as cloning, euthanasia and stem-cell research, has moved from Boston to Philadelphia. Founded in 1972 as the Pope John XXIII Medical-Moral Research and Education Center and first located in St. Louis, the center had been based in Boston since 1985. The center's staff consults regularly on life science issues and medical issues with the Vatican, the U.S. bishops and public policy-makers, hospitals and international organizations of all faiths. John Haas, president of the center since 1996, said Vatican agencies including the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Pontifical Academy for Life and the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers "will consult us, as they will other experts around the world, to help formulate magisterial teaching." The center's ethicists help church officials stay at the cutting edge of the issues, "so they can be proactive rather than just reactive," Haas told The Catholic Standard & Times, newspaper of the Philadelphia Archdiocese.

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