Vatican City, Dec 12, 2008 / 10:26 am
Today Pope Benedict XVI, through the work of several Vatican congregations, weighed-in on the ethical nature of various fertility treatments, experiments with stem cells, human cloning and the creation of hybrid embryos.
The new document issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) is the result of six years of study and deliberation on the most recent developments in the field of bio-technology.
Beginning with the words “the dignity of the person” or “Dignitas Personae,” the aim of the three-part instruction is to provide responses from the Church to new bioethical questions that didn’t exist when the Church released her last biomedical document in 1987. According to the CDF, the document seeks “both to contribute ‘to the formation of conscience’ and to encourage biomedical research respectful of the dignity of every human being and of procreation.”
Archbishop Luis Francisco Ladaria Ferrer, S.J., Secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, explained at a press conference at the Vatican today that “Dignitas Personae” carries the weight of an official teaching of the Pope and "is of a doctrinal nature."