Cardinal laments 'decidedly mixed' progress on respect for life

Published: 2005-09-30

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The nation's progress toward a culture in which every human life is respected and defended is "decidedly mixed," Cardinal William H. Keeler of Baltimore said in a statement marking Respect Life Sunday, Oct. 2. "The 'healing arts' are moving beyond the field of healing and into an ethical minefield, where technical knowledge can be used as much to demean life as to serve it," said the cardinal, chairman of the U.S. bishops' Committee on Pro-Life Activities. As examples, he cited moves toward assisted suicide, "immoral and speculative research" on embryos to produce stem cells, the production and eventual destruction of embryos for in vitro fertilization and the invention by drug companies of "ever new ways to block human reproductive capacity." Cardinal Keeler said, "As Catholics we know that the truth of human life is infinitely greater than any narrow view that dismisses some lives as disposable."

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