Vatican to excommunicate stem cell scientists, supporting politicians

[Grimmlok]

What's that Timmy? Yes, that *is* the sound of the Vatican becoming more irrelevant.

(Filed: 30/06/2006)



Scientists who carry out embryonic stem cell research and politicians who pass laws permitting the practice will be excommunicated, the Vatican said yesterday.

"Destroying human embryos is equivalent to an abortion. It is the same thing," said Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, head of the Pontifical Council for the Family.

"Excommunication will be applied to the women, doctors and researchers who eliminate embryos [and to the] politicians that approve the law," he said in an interview with Famiglia Christiana, an official Vatican magazine.


Excommunication forbids Catholics from receiving communion, assisting in any Church duties, and sometimes from having a Church burial.

But the threat was shrugged off yesterday by Italy's leading expert on cloning, Prof Cesare Galli, of the Laboratory of Reproductive Technologies in Cremona, who was the first scientist to clone a horse.

Prof Galli likened the Vatican to the Taliban and added: "I can bear excommunication. I was raised as a Catholic, I share Catholic values, but I am able to make my own judgment on some issues and I do not need to be told by the Church what to do or to think. (Woo! go you!)

"I will be, together with Elena Cattaneo [a scientist working in the University of Milan] the first to be affected by the excommunication and then there are two other labs that I know using imported embryonic stem cells."

The research is opposed by the Catholic Church because it involves destroying embryos. This occurs at the point when they consist of about 100 to 200 cells and the so-called inner cell mass is removed. These stem cells can grow indefinitely and turn into any of the body's 200 cell types.

Scientists believe research making use of the cells could eventually yield treatments for a range of diseases, including diabetes, heart disease and Parkinson's.

The Vatican's tough stance on the issue came as the Pope prepared to visit Valencia for the fifth annual world conference on the Catholic family. Spain passed a law permitting embryonic stem cell research two years ago to the dismay of the Church.

An Italian senator, Paola Binetti, a member of Opus Dei and a prominent campaigner for Catholic rights, also spoke against the Church's line.

"I am upset and stunned," she said. "It is a mistake to give out the idea that God is angry with Man because he is not in agreement with him."

Cardinal Trujillo said it was not just Spain which had "thrown out the fundamental laws of nature" but also Belgium, Holland, the Scandinavian countries and France. He did not mention Britain, which is at the forefront of embryonic stem cell research.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main...30/ixnews.html

[Butterfly]

Someone needs to tell those old men to sit down and shut up. Every time I see a priest I think of a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Sticks up middle finger <----excommunicated this!

[MrsDark]

Okay then, whenever one of those old fuckers is dying, they should not be allowed any medical treatments/advancements that have come from stem cell research...even indirectly. Hypocrites.

[AliceInWonderland]

who cares! just ignore them.

The Vatican = murderer of progress

[Delphinium]

The Vatican certainly has the right to excommunicate those "members" who do not follow the "rules" of the church. I'm not a Catholic, but I respect that church's right to show the door to those members who do not live by the tenets of that faith.

Every time I see a priest I think of a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

I think that is a little extreme. Sadly the bad apples of the bunch have sullied the name and reputation of many good men who are priests. I've known a couple of priests during my lifetime, that while I didn't agree with the theology were awesome people, very kind, and they did live up to the "ideal" of what a priest should be like.