Excommunication of stem cell scientists

Vatican leans on embryonic stem cell work
UPI Religion & Spirituality Forum

VATICAN CITY, June 28 (UPI) — Roman Catholics involved in embryonic stem cell research now face excommunication, the Vatican said Wednesday.

The head of the Vatican department dealing with family affairs said in a magazine interview that "destroying human embryos is equivalent to an abortion ... it's the same thing," ANSA reported.

"Excommunication applies to all women, doctors and researchers who eliminate embryos," Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo said.

Trujillo said that "certain crimes" were being treated as if they had "become rights."

He also said the Roman Catholic Church was worried because "even talking about the defense of life and family rights is being treated as a sort of crime against the state in some countries — a form of social disobedience or discrimination against women."

Embryonic stem-cell research techniques involve destroying human embryos to extract their stem cells, which have the ability to grow into any tissue of the body. Researchers believe such cells could eventually be used to treat a host of ailments including Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's and diabetes.

Trujillo's comments come just before the Fifth World Meeting of Families, due to be held in Valencia, Spain, from July 1 to 9

 

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Its like being kicked out of the Star Trek fan club for not believing in hyperdrive or for doing research that doesn't support teleportation.

Its too bad science can't simply "excommunicate" religious nutbars.

 

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I just wished that the religious nuts knew what they were talking about when it comes to stem cell research (or any other aspect of science)

 

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honestly though, is anyone surprised by this? as a matter of fact, i say let them do it - they can only hurt themselves in the long run.

 

excommunication is a public sign that they do not share our beliefs. i fail to see how this is "unfair". would you like me to go around saying that i am an atheist and go around preaching about God?

 

yes, it will make us unpopular, and 'hurt" us. it will not be our fault for confessing the Truth, but it will be the fault of unbelievers for rejecting it. you may even destroy all of us, if you need, but The Truth nevertheless remains.

 

But they will also supress advances in medicine

 

yeah whatever. blah blah blah.

 

do you think that a serious scientist in this day and age who has devoted their career to stem cell research for the good of humanity is going to be worried about being kicked out of the "heads in the sand" club? i doubt it. the catholic church has become a vestigial organ, hence the only people currently flocking to it are the poor and uneducated, while those who see the writing on the wall leave in droves.

 

Arent the embryos already dead? If so, why is it a crime? Get the stem cells out of the already dead, thousands of stored embryos, cure as many diseases as possible, and stop killing more. Solves everything. Altho, thats too simple, so I probably have my info screwed up...

 

That's Star Wars that has hyperdrive. Dunno what treknobabble shit ST has, though.

 

Lawdog,

And the truth is what?

Stem cell research is possibly the most important activity for the human race today. That the church can't see that is hardly suprising. They have been stifling science in their irrational ignorance since they came into existence.

 

Once stem cells display their miracle healing proficiency as we expect then the church will do an abrupt about-face and will praise the wonders of God's creation, you can take that to the bank.

 

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M*W: Embryonic stem cells are only viable at the fifth to six day of gestation. After that, they are too old and non-viable. An embryo at the 5-6th day of gestation is NOT a human embryo, although it may develop into a human embryo, it is not viable as a stem cell embryo after that date. So, no babies were killed.

 

Dont we have alot stored in freezers tho?

 

Can't hurt to have more.

 

sure, but atleast restart testing on the ones we got....

 

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M*W: I wouldn't go so far as to say "a lot." There are about 19 stem cell lines worldwide (or that's what we know about). The laboratory I worked in purchased some stem cells from another medical university, and we cloned them in vitro for our studies.

The uninformed who believe mad scientists are killing babies don't seem to care that these clumps of cells (they call babies) have already been stored in the deep freeze. Why doesn't that bother them?

What's god got to do... got to do with it? When the embryos are in the deep freeze, they aren't being used to promote human life. It's when they are transplanted into human tissue they become viable as regenerated human tissue in vivo.

 

Exactly, so lets just use them.

 

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M*W: Never fear, they are being studied in medical and scientific laboratories all over the world -- even as we speak! Stem cells are being transplanted into diseased tissue in private facilities across this country. The buzz word here is "private." Public institutions are being held up by the bureaucracy of the PTB (powers that be) in Washington, DC. Public institutions are not given monetary awards from the NIH and FDA for embryonic stem cell research. Private institutions fund their own research. That's the difference.