Friday, December 12, 2008

Vatican Attacks Science

The Washington Post reports that the Vatican has issued 
its first authoritative statement on reproductive science in more than 20 years, today condemned human cloning, designer babies, embryonic stem cell research that destroys human embryos and a host of techniques widely used to help infertile couples.

Maybe it's just me, but something seems strange about a religious body putting out an "authoritative statement" on science.  Along with condemning human cloning, the Vatican also proscribes embryonic stem cell research and a wide range of infertility treatments.

According to Richard Doerflinger of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, "the church is very closely watching scientific progress and favors that progress but wants ethics to be part of that." That's one way of putting it.  Another way would be that the church wants to tell scientists which parts of science are ethical, and which are not.

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