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Pope John Paul II, addressing an international conference
on transplant techniques, praised science for its dedication to preserving
human life but described as "morally unacceptable" any form
of human embryo cloning or commercialization of organ transplants.
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He said respect for human life should be the guiding
principle in determining the boundary of scientific experimentation.
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"Every medical procedure performed on the
human person is subject to limits: not just the limits of what is
technically possible, but also limits determined by respect for human
nature itself," he stated.
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"What is technically possible is not for
that reason alone morally admissible," he said.
- The Pope chose to leave his summer retreat to
deliver it, because he considered the issue to be of the highest importance.
Currently, there is an intense ethical debate going
on in the wake of Britain's decision to allow the limited cloning of human
embryos for research purposes.
"Transplants are a great step forward in science's
service of man, and not a few people today owe their lives to an organ
transplant," said the Pope. "(But) any procedure which tends
to commercialize human organs or to consider them as items of exchange
or trade must be considered morally unacceptable," he said, adding
that any transplant should be non-discriminatory and non-utilitarian,
that is, based solely on immunological and clinical factors.
In reference to Britain's guidelines for "therapeutic
cloning" of human embryo stem cells, which in effect allows for the
creation of human beings and their termination two weeks later, the Pope
was more explicit, saying that "Methods that fail to respect the
dignity and value of the person must always be avoided. I am thinking
in particular of attempts at human cloning with a view to obtaining organs
for transplants."
"These techniques, insofar as they involve the
manipulation and destruction of human embryos, are not morally acceptable,
even when their proposed goal is good in itself," he said. However,
he did say that it was morally permissible to conduct research on adult
stem cells, an already active field.
Scientists at the conference praised Pope John Paul's
stance, saying it was hugely supportive of transplantation.
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