The Vatican Issues Major New Doctrine 'The Dignity of a Person'. Embryo Rights Doctrine. |
Catholic doctrine for embryos for stem cell research, cloning and in-vitro fertilization. |
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Editors published 12/12/2008 12:10:00 PM
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The Vatican issued Dignitas Personae,"The Dignity of a Person", to help answer bioethical questions that have emerged in the two decades since its last such document was published.
Embryos have rights. Human life begins at conception and must be given the consequent respect and dignity from that moment on. It merits "unconditional respect" from the moment of conception, which occurs as soon as an egg is fertilized, thus creating a genetically distinct individual. The Vatican also holds that human life should be created through intercourse between husband and wife, not in a petri dish.
The PDF version is here and the Q&A is here.
The Vatican is saying the following are forbidden:
- designer babies
- human/animal hybrids
- cloning
- stem cell research
- stem cells created in a petri dish
- freezing embryos
- destroying embryos
- in-vitro fertilization
- Preimplantation diagnosis, whereby a fertilized embryo is searched for genetic defects before implantation in the womb, is also wrong, the Vatican said, because eliminating embryos with genetic defects, or simply being an unwanted sex, also constitutes abortion.
- vaccines made from stem cells or fetal tissue. Some of the popular vaccines for rubella, mumps and measles use material from abortions.
These are allowed:
- gene therapies
- some fertility treatments
- possibly embryo "adoption"
- therapeutic use of stem cells from adults, umbilical cord blood and children who have died in the womb of natural causes - but not from living embryos
Vatican said it opposed in vitro fertilization because it involves separating conception from the "conjugal act" and often results in the destruction of embryos.
It similarly opposed the techniques involved in IVF - selective reduction of embryos, pre-implantation diagnosis and embryo freezing - because embryos are or can be destroyed.
It also said it opposed the morning-after pill, even if it doesn't cause an abortion, because an abortion was intended. That could complicate the situation of some Catholic hospitals in the United States that offer the morning-after pill to rape victims.
In the use of drugs such as RU-486, which causes the elimination of the embryo once it is implanted, the "sin of abortion" is committed, the document said, thus their use is "gravely immoral."
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