Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Jan 10, 2005 / 22:00 pm
While the year-long debate on legalizing embryonic stem cell research continues in the Brazilian Congress, the President of the National Bishops Conference of Brazil, Cardinal Geraldo Majella Agnelo, denounced some scientists who “sell hopes to a whole list of seriously ill people, as if, once the law is approved, effective therapies will at once be able to take place.”
“The discovery of so-called stem cells was an advancement for science, but there are scientists who, out of commercial interests, are selling hopes about future treatments,” warned the cardinal.
Cardinal Agnelo approved of research using adult stem cells, which according to the latest studies are more effective in treating and curing diseases, and he called the creation of embryos through in vitro fertilization for therapeutic reasons “horrific.” “It is one of the horrors produced in this environment of technological sophistication, which requires large amounts of resources and reaps enormous economic profits,” he added.
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