Laurie Goodstein and Elisabetta Povoledo write in the New York Times about the 32 page document recently issued by the Vatican dealing with many issues of biomedical technology, which establishes (or, in some cases, reinforces) the Roman Catholic position on these issues:
Under discussion for six years, it is a moral response to bioethical questions raised in the 21 years since the congregation last issued instructions.
…The Vatican document reiterates that the church is opposed to research on stem cells derived from embryos. But it does not oppose research on stem cells derived from adults; blood from umbilical cords; or fetuses “who have died of natural causes.”
The document does not prohibit the use of vaccines developed using “cell lines of illicit origin” if children’s health is at stake. But it says that “everyone has the duty” to inform health care providers of personal objections to such vaccines.
The church also objects to freezing embryos, arguing that doing so exposes them to potential damage and manipulation, and that it raises the problem of what to do with frozen embryos that are not implanted. There are at least 400,000 of these in the United States alone.
…The document does little to clarify the Vatican’s position on whether couples can “adopt” surplus embryos that have been frozen and abandoned. Such “prenatal adoption,” although rare, has been promoted by some Catholics and evangelical Christians. The document says that while “prenatal adoption” is “praiseworthy,” it presents ethical problems similar to certain types of in vitro fertilization—in particular, surrogate motherhood, which the church prohibits.
Read the full article here, the full document here, and go here for Slate‘s interesting discussion of the moral dilemma surrounding frozen embryos.