A Catholic Reflection on Embryonic Stem Cell Research

McGee Glenn , and Caplan Arthur “The Ethics and Politics of Small Sacrifices in Stem Cell Research,” The Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal 9 (1999): 153.

Meilaender Gilbert “The Point of a Ban or, How to Think about Stem Cell Research,” Hastings Center Report 31 (January-February 2001): 12.

Ramsey Paul Fabricated Man: The Ethics of Genetic Control (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1970), pp. 92–96.

I list infertility in this context because in May 2003. US scientists had managed to grow egg cells from early mouse embryonic stem cells, and in the same month Japanese scientists found that they could use ES cells to produce immature sperm cells. Thus, some believe that human embryonic stem cells could become a cure for some types of infertility, especially in eases where the woman does not produce her own eggs or the man does not produce any or enough sperm.

This “option” or “preference” for the poor and oppressed has become a regular theme in nearly all Catholic social teaching (encyclicals) since the Second Vatican Council in 1965.

For a further discussion of each one of these views, see Michael R. Panicola, “Three Views on the Preimplantation Embryo,” The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly 2(Spring 2002): 69-97.

In the Declaration on Abortion from the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in November 1974, it is stated in footnote #19 that, “This declaration expressly leaves aside the question of the moment when the spiritual soul is infused,” The same Congregation in its Instruction on Respect for Human Life in its Origin and on the Dignity of Procreation in March 1987 reiterated this view on the beginnings of persona) life, but then claims that, “The human being is to be respected and treated as a person from the moment of conception and therefore from that same moment his rights as a person must be recognized” (§I, 1). See also Pope John Paul II's encyclical Evangelium Vitae, §60.

For some recent examples, see Margaret Farley. “Roman Catholic Views on Research Involving Human Embryonic Stem Cells,” in the National Bioethics Advisory Commission's report Ethical Issues in Human Stem Cell Research, Volume III: Religious Perspectives (Rockville, MD: June 2000): D-3-5; Norman Ford, S.D.B., “The Human Embryo as Person in Catholic Teaching,” The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly 1 (Summer 2001); 155-160; and Thomas A. Shannon and Allan B. Wolter, “Reflections on the Moral Status of the Preembryo,” in Shannon Thomas A. , and Walter James J. , The New Genetic Medicine: Theological and Ethical Reflections (New York: Sheed and Ward, 2003), pp. 41–63.

For example, see Doerflinger Richard M. “The Ethics of Funding Embryonic Stem Cell Research: A Catholic Viewpoint,” Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal 9 (June 1999): 137–150.

See Pier Nicanor , Giorgio Austriaco O.P. “Notes on Bioethics,” The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly 3 (Summer 2003): 367–370.

Zitner Aaron “Scientists Try Unfertilized Eggs as Source of Stem Cells,” Los Angeles Times (August 12, 2001): 1 & A20. Also, in September 2003 Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in North Carolina used parthenogenesis to extract stem cells from monkey eggs and then grew them into a variety of different cells, including heart, nerve and muscle cells.

See New England Journal of Medicine 344 (2001): 710–14 and Arthur Caplan and Glenn McGee, “Fetal Cell implants: What We Learned,” Hastings Center Report 31 (May-June 2001): 6.

See Meilaender “The Point of a Ban,” pp. 10–11.

For example, the International Communication Research survey in June 2001 showed that 69.9% of those polled opposed the use of public money for purposes of destroying the human embryo for such research. See: http://www/usccb.org/comm/archives/2001/01.htm.

See Latkovic Mark S. “The Morality of Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research and President Bush's Decision: How Should Catholics Think About Such Things?” Linacre Quarterly 69 (November 2002): 289–314, especially pp. 295-97.

National Bioethics Advisory Commission, Ethical Issues in Human Stem Cell Research: Executive Summary (Rockville, MD: September 1999): p. 5.

On the issue of using somatic cell nuclear transplant cloning (SCNT) in stem cell research, see two important scientific reports: Committee on Stem Cells and the Future of Regenerative Medicine. Board on Life Sciences and Board on Neuroscience and Behavioral Health. Stem Cells and the Future of Regenerative Medicine: Report of the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine, September 2001; and The National Academy of Sciences, Scientific and Medical Aspects of Human Reproductive Cloning, 2002. Both committees recommended the creation of embryos by using SCNT cloning techniques for research purposes on stem cells. The recent President's Council on Bioethics report Human Cloning and Human Dignity: An Ethical Inquiry (2002) discussed the possibility of using SCNT cloning for stem cell research, but the majority recommendation was to establish a four-year moratorium on this type of research.

Around the world, 1.1 billion people are without clean water and 2.4 billion people are without sanitation. The result is that more than 2.2 million die each year from both of these preventable factors. Furthermore, approximately two-thirds of the world population (4 billion people) is without adequate nutrition at some point during the year, which can be the cause of many preventable illnesses.

For a further discussion of this issue, see Andrea Vicini S.J. “Ethical Issues and Approaches in Stem Cell Research: From International Insights to a Proposal,” Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics 23 (Spring/Summer 2003): 71–98.

US Bishops, Economic Justice for All: Catholic Social Teaching and the U.S. Economy, in Origins 16 (November 27, 1986): 443.