Vatican issues major statement on reproductive science

The Vatican has denounced artificial fertility treatments and emergency contraception as ‘immoral’ but backed stem cell experiments using adult cells. 

In its first major statement on reproductive science in 20 years, the Roman Catholic Church also condemned human cloning, designer babies and the use of embryos in medical research, the Daily Telegraph reports.

The document, approved by Pope Benedict XVI, reaffirms the church’s view that human life is sacred at every stage of its existence, and that babies should be created simply by married couples having sexual intercourse. The 32-page document, called Dignitas Personae, has been drawn up by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to give the church’s authoritative view on recent developments in medicine and science.

Dignitas Personae says that human cloning – illegal around the world – is “intrinsically illicit” because it involves the creation of life without loving parents. It also condemns the creation of hybrid human-animal embryos, which is now legal in the UK following the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act.

But the Vatican says that stem cell research “should be encouraged” if the tissue is obtained from adults, umbilical cord blood or fetuses that have died naturally. This comes just weeks after British scientists successfully created a replacement windpipe for a woman using adult stem cells.

The document restates Catholic doctrine that IVF is immoral because it involves the “discarding” of embryos, and also condemns fertility treatments that involve the freezing of embryos or the injecting of sperm into eggs because they “substitute for the conjugal act”. It also declares the screening or modifying of the genes of embryos – creating so-called “designer babies” – immoral and warns that those who try to create new types of human are playing God.

Birth control methods such as the morning after pill, abortion pills and the coil are also called sinful. However, hormone treatment for infertility and one form of gene therapy – somatic – is permitted.

Vatican condemns fertility treatments as ‘immoral’ but approves of adult stem cell research. Daily Telegraph, 12 December 2008