Archbishop among supporters of experimental stem-cell technique

Published: 2005-06-22

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Archbishop John J. Myers of Newark, N.J., and several Catholic bioethicists were among 35 experts in medicine and ethics who recently announced their support for research into an experimental laboratory technique that could produce embryolike stem cells without creating or destroying human embryos. Supporters of this research said the laboratory technique, if successful, would avoid moral objections by people opposed to extracting pluripotent stem cells from human embryos because the process destroys the embryos. Pluripotent stem cells can develop into any cell in the human body and many scientists believe that they hold the key to curing a variety of diseases. A joint statement by the 35 experts said the laboratory technique would be similar to the process for cloning human embryos. But the genetic material injected into the egg would be modified in advance so that instead of producing an embryo a pluripotent stem cell would be produced, said the statement. The cell would be "incapable of being or becoming an embryo," said the statement. The statement was posted June 20 on the Web site of the Washington-based Ethics and Public Policy Center, an independent organization whose stated aim is to apply Judeo-Christian moral traditions to U.S. domestic and foreign policy issues. More than half of the statement's signers were Catholics or people associated with Catholic institutions.

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