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US President Barack Obama signs an Executive Order on stem cell research in the East Room of the White House - Source: Reuters -
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US President Barack Obama's lifting of restrictions on federal
funding for human embryonic stem cell research puts him at odds
with Pope Benedict and the American Roman Catholic Church.
After Obama signed the order on Monday, the Vatican and US and
Italian Church leaders condemned the move.
One commentator said the test of a real democracy was its
defence of the most defenceless.
Obama's executive order reversed and repudiated restrictions placed
on the research by his predecessor, George Bush, freeing labs
across the country to start working with the cells, which can give
rise to any kind of cell in the body.
Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia, chairman of the US
Conference of Catholic Bishops' committee on pro-life activities,
called Obama's decision a sad victory of politics over science and
ethics.
"This action is morally wrong because it encourages the destruction
of innocent human life, treating vulnerable human beings as mere
products to be harvested," he added.
The Catholic Church, other religious groups and pro-life advocates
oppose embryonic stem cell research - which scientists hope can
lead to cures for diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's -
because it involves the destruction of embryos.
The Catholic Church supports adult stem cell research, which has
made advances in recent years, because it does not involve the
destruction of embryos.
An article in the Vatican newspaper on Tuesday said "a real
democracy" should be founded on protection of human dignity in
every phase of its existence.
Money over morals?
Monsignor Elio Sgreccia, a leading Vatican bioethics specialist,
told Italian media: "The motive for this decision should be seen in
the pressure for profits."
After the ban was lifted on Monday, US shares in stem cell research
companies soared. Researchers said companies that had been afraid
to test the waters would probably leap in now that federal dollars
can be used.
The issue will most likely be a main topic at the first meeting
between the pope and Obama, expected to take place in July when the
president is in Italy for a G8 summit.
In 2001, the late Pope John Paul II urged Bush not to allow stem
cell research.
Last year a Vatican bioethics document said the human embryo has
from the very beginning, the dignity proper to a person.
Now that Obama has lifted the restrictions, Catholic theologians
have been debating how embryonic stem cell research can be made
less morally repugnant, in the words of one theologian.
Father Thomas J Reese, senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological
Center of Georgetown University, suggested several ways the Obama
administration could find some middle ground.
Reese's suggestions include not creating embryos for the sole
purpose of research but instead using only excess embryos produced
at fertility clinics that are scheduled to be destroyed
anyway.
He also said researchers should show that the research they are
doing cannot be done with non-embryonic stem cells, and that
research using embryonic stem cells should aim at advancing toward
the goal of using only non-embryonic stem cells.
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