Catholics fight push by states for embryonic stem-cell research

Published: 2005-03-07

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Like many other states, Massachusetts is considering legislation that would promote embryonic stem-cell research, prohibit human reproductive cloning, and set rules for informed consent and ethical review of any such research. "Our research community stands on the threshold of great advances in the fight against disabling childhood and degenerative diseases, but has been held back by cloudy legal policy on stem-cell research," said Senate President Robert E. Travaglini in introducing the legislation. "Massachusetts must act now to maintain its prominence in the industry." Father Tadeusz Pacholczyk, a neuroscientist who is director of education at the National Catholic Bioethics Center in Philadelphia, sees the rush to get in on embryonic stem-cell research as part of a "modern secular fairy tale." People want to believe that science can "push back the frontiers of death itself," the priest of the Diocese of Fall River, Mass., said in an interview in his Philadelphia office. But the hopes of those promoting embryonic stem-cell research are "much bigger than what's supported by science," he added.

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