Free Republic

In the wake of announcements from multiple pharmaceutical companies about safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines, many are expressing ethical doubts about whether it is OK to take these vaccines. Do Catholics have a moral duty to decline an inoculation if it was unethically produced using a cell line that came from an abortion? The short answer is “no.” This has been discussed and explained in several magisterial church documents in recent years. In 2008, for example, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith reminded us in the Instruction Dignitas Personae that: “Grave reasons may be morally proportionate to justify...

Philadelphia, Oct 15, 2007 / 02:43 pm (CNA).- While gaffes by the secular press covering religion are somewhat common and often humorous, they usually aren’t as bad as the Associated Press’ latest error. On Friday, AP reporter Nicole Winfield incorrectly wrote that Pope Benedict XVI supports therapeutic cloning. The article accurately states that Pope Benedict XVI has asked the South Koreans not to resume embryonic stem cell research, now that the scandal caused by Hwang Woo-suk is receding from their collective memory. Hwang claimed to have cloned human embryos and was lauded as a national hero until his work was...

The Ten Great Myths in the Debate Over Stem Cell ResearchRev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, Ph.D.1. Stem cells can only come from embryos. In fact stem cells can be taken from umbilical cords, the placenta, amniotic fluid, adult tissues and organs such as bone marrow, fat from liposuction, regions of the nose, and even from cadavers up to 20 hours after death. 2. The Catholic Church is against stem cell research. There are four categories of stem cells: embryonic stem cells, embryonic germ cells, umbilical cord stem cells, and adult stem cells. Given that germ cells can come from miscarriages that...

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - A religious watchdog group complained Monday that a Bible study course taught in hundreds of public schools in Texas and across the country promotes a fundamentalist Christian view and violates religious freedom. The Texas Freedom Network, which includes clergy of several faiths, also said the course offered by the Greensboro, N.C.-based National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools is full of errors and dubious research. The producers of the Bible class dismissed the Texas Freedom Network as a "far left" organization trying to suppress study of a historical text. The National Council on Bible Curriculum...

Please read the statement released by the National Catholic Bioethics Center regarding the aborted fetal cell line research at Georgetown University - and our response. And then I ask you to spread this message far and wide to every Christian you know. These people are supposed to be giving guidance and direction to our Bishops and Church leaders. And for those of you who have faithfully followed our work, you will be shocked to learn that not only does this Catholic organization think that Georgetown's research is perfectly acceptable, they believe the pharmaceutical industry is blameless as well! In Christ...