28-Nov-2001 -- EWTN News Brief CARDINAL SAYS GOOD INTENT DOES NOT NULLIFY EVIL OF CLONING
VATICAN, (CWNews.com) - That human cloning research is pursued to find cures for diseases and ailments does not reduce the immorality of the act of manufacturing human beings, said Cardinal Alfonso Trujillo, the president of the Pontifical Council for the Family. "The production of a human being by the means of cloning is contrary to human dignity and the dignity of procreation that God entrusted to the union of a man and a woman," the cardinal told the Italian newspaper Corriere della Serra on Tuesday. He stressed that it is necessary to continue research for medical treatments which do not result in the destruction of embryos. The cardinal's comments came a day after a US-based company announced that it had successfully cloned a human being in the laboratory and that it had subsequently killed the embryonic unborn child. Cardinal Trujillo affirmed that "the therapeutic intent does not change the fact that this is about the production of embryos who will be destroyed." He added that he is not opposed to all research, but only that which results in "the production and the destruction of embryos, because that constitutes a cruel process with respect to the human being." The cardinal added that it is up to "the governments, the parliaments, the United Nations to intervene" to outlaw cloning. "Many countries have already expressed their reservations. A law which prohibits cloning was approved in the United States by the House of Representatives and is currently before the Senate," he said. "The UN should consider that the current lack of regulation becomes a serious threat to the common good of humanity and we can only encourage the proposals to regulate this process," concluded the cardinal.
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