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Posted on 01/31/2008 1:34:58 PM PST by NYer
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict said on Thursday that embryonic stem cell research, artificial insemination and the prospect of human cloning had "shattered" human dignity.
In an address to members of the Vatican department on doctrinal matters, Benedict said the Church had a duty to defend the "great values at stake" in the field of bioethics.
The speech was the latest in a series in which the conservative Pope has told his listeners that scientific progress should not be accepted uncritically.
Benedict, who headed the same department for years before his election in 2005, said the Church was not against scientific progress but wanted it based on "ethical-moral principles."
He said this included total respect for the human being as a person "from conception until natural death," and respect for the natural transmission of life through sexual intercourse.
Practices like freezing embryos, suppression of embryos in multiple pregnancies, embryonic stem cell research, the prospect of human cloning and artificial insemination outside the body had "shattered the barriers meant to protect human dignity," he said.
"When human beings in the weakest and most defenseless state of their existence are selected, abandoned, killed or used as pure 'biological material,' how can one deny that they are being treated not as 'someone' but as 'something,"' he said.
Such practices "questioned the very concept of the dignity of man," he said in the speech to the department known as the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
Widespread interest in medicine by the general public, who get most of their information from the media, had made it even more imperative for the Church to take a stand, he said.
Embryonic stem cell research involves the destruction of embryos. Scientists hope to use stem cells to transform medicine, providing regenerative treatments for injuries and seeking new insights into diseases like cancer and AIDS.
Last year scientists reported they had tricked ordinary skin cells into behaving like embryonic stem cells.
The Pope said the Church "appreciates and encourages" research on stem cells that come from other parts of the body and do not involve embryos or their destruction.
He rejected accusations from critics who say the Church is an obstacle to science and human progress, saying growing concern about cloning and other practices showed it was right to raise the alarm.
It was the Pope's latest foray into scientific issues. On Monday he warned against the "seductive" powers of science, saying it was important that science did not become the sole criteria for goodness.
U.S. Cardinal William Levada, Benedict's successor as head of the doctrinal department, said it was mulling the possibility of preparing a new Vatican document on bioethical issues.
Take plain 'ole genetics, for instance. So many behavioral and personality aspects and characteristics are being treated as based on genetics or epigenetics. And then there are chemicals from diets and malformed body parts (organs, glands, etc.). On one level, those things probably do influence personality, behavior, temperment, etc., but there's danger in ascribing everything to chemical reactions.
There's more to humanity than hormones and neurotransmitters.
It’s my personal belief that man will cross the red line one day with all this human cloning stuff and that is when the end of the world will be.
No one, not even the Pope, knows the meaning of the word ‘dignity’ but we use it all the time. Some kind of verbal ornament.
Raw science does not shatter human dignity. What people do with it does though. How they go about practicing it can also do it.
Bob Dylan wrote a song about it.
Dignity.
Bob knows.
Help us out. What IS dignity?
Bob knows a lot more than he lets on.
Mankind crossed a line when Satan tempted with the words “ye shall be as Gods.” They were cast out of Paradise.
Clearly, to play God would be to place the future of your soul at risk. The Pope is in the business of delivering as many of these souls to Paradise as possible. Therefore, we should not play God, we should not fiddle around with God’s Creation in such a manner, and the Church’s teaching on abortion/euthanasia/contraception/embryonic stem cells is so clear in this area, it baffles me that more people do not understand it.
Of course, there are those who do not worry about the fate of their soul, because they do not believe. I pray that God tears down the imperfect walls these people have constructed around their hardened hearts (I say imperfect, because humans aren’t perfect, and God will find a way to bring your walls down).
Sorry, but your definitions although multitudinous are not even in the ballpark except for #6 which indicates the direction for further research.
First of all, I’m against all government research that has no direct military applications. That said...
What exactly does it mean to “play God”? Change what God made? Last time I checked that’s how humans thrive, changing their surroundings. Why is changing ourselves such a huge leap?
If I can’t have a child the ‘natural’ way, I’m glad science can help. If I have a genetic defect that takes a pill to cure, why wouldn’t I take it. If I can have my heart cloned when the ticker is running out on the one I have, why wouldn’t I do it? Because it’s ‘playing God’? All I see is another excuse for some people to tell others how to live their lives. If no ones individual rights are being violated then no one has the right to tell another what to do.
Tell us. What does “dignity” mean? Or are you proposing that it has no meaning: ain’t no such thing?
No, I will not tell. It is used in various learned works where the meanings given as above have no meaning whatsoever. It shall remain a secret sign of recognition among the seekers.
I’m not saying that all science or all pharmacy is playing God. I have a degree in Chemistry myself. What I am saying is that we as human beings should not control life in such a way. If we attempt to concieve, it is God’s will if it happens. Otherwise, adoption is a very noble thing. And concerning death, God will call us home when He decides. Natural conception to natural death, that is God’s way.
In these cases, no one seems to care whether or not the unborn’s rights are being violated. Or whether or not people considered to be in a “vegetative state” are having their rights violated.
God bless the Pope. Ave Maria.
In a lot of ways, the punishment of man’s sin is found in the sin itself. i.e., I don’t think there’s one single line in the sand that will precipitate the end. But the continuing dehumanization and collateralization of life will lead to greater and greater acts of inhumanity and atrocity as societal “norms”.
Some may argue that the 20th century may never be paralleled in the kind of worldwide savagery that spanned two world wars, the concentration camps, the gulags, S.E. Asia, Africa, etc. But those were all atrocities committed during war, power consolidation, and general upheaval. We’re talking about normal, “civilized” society with a scoreboard of aborted babies that would make your run of the mill political tyrant blush. When Hitler experimented on human beings, it was ghastly. When society demands it today, it’s “progress”. That’s the qualitative difference: The 20th century featured perverted, heartless individuals; today we have a perverted, heartless society. That’s the price of sin, and God doesn’t have to lift a finger for us to suffer unspeakable punishment.
God Bless the Pope.
Dignity, in the religious sense, is the irrevocable quality of man being made in the image of God (i.e., infused with a soul). Nothing a man does can forfeit his right to be treated with this dignity in mind because the soul is ever-present. Thus what one does to the least among us, they do that unto God Himself, as well.
Just sayin’.
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