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Cardinal condemns stem-cell researchers

Excommunication threat may extend to all working with embryonic cells.

As the Catholic church holds its World Meeting of Families in Valencia, Spain, this week, some will be watching to see if Pope Benedict XVI supports the excommunication of those working with embryonic stem cells.

Read the story here.

Posted by Nicola Jones on July 04, 2006
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One the reads the article regarding the statement of Alfonso Lopez Cardinal Trujillo, Pontifical Council for the Family, given at a conference in Spain. One notes that His Eminence is obviously not a diplomat as he says this in a country that has become very secular, going from 80 to 20% practicing Catholics in less that a generation. Trujillo and his cadre can take a majority share of the credit for this, as they can for the strained relations between the Vatican and the current government.

Trujillo is also not a scholar, indeed even nescient of his own Church's history. In the Roman Church, prior to the Bull of Pius IX [Apostolicae Sedis, 1869] ensoulment--the sine qua non to determine if a human life is destroyed--was deemed not to occur until weeks after conception. He is apparently also unfamiliar with the writings of other pontiffs on this subject, e.g., Innocent III and Gregory XIV. He could not have read works by the Church Fathers, e.g., St. Augustine, letter 143, or St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica. Is he familiar with the Scriptures, e.g., Genesis 2:7, Luke 1:15?

One does agree that no scientist involved in stem cell research "would care if they are excommunicated or not." One must also wonder if God Himself even notices such a parochial pronouncement by a senescent prelate.

Clark D. Hinderleider, M.D., Ph.D.
Secretary, Clinician-Scientists for the Public's Weal
Instructor of Surgery, Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery
Mount Sinai School of Medicine, CUNY
Clinical Adjunct, Department of Physiology
Contributing Editor, Science Advisory Board
Member, The Learning Curve International Advisory Board
Member; Center on Science, Technology, and Space; Roosevelt Institution
Member, Alliance for Stem Cell Research
Member, Congressional Liaison Committee (JSCPP)

eMail: CLARKMDPH@aol.com
(415) 244,6203

Posted by: Clark D. Hinderleider, M.D., Ph.D. | July 11, 2006 03:14 AM

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