HENRIETTA — There’s no such thing as a guilty embryo, according to Father Tadeusz Pacholczyk, 40, a neuroscientist who is director of education for the National Catholic Bioethics Center in Philadelphia, Pa.
"The embryo is always, always innocent," he said during an interview at a local restaurant.
Yet those arguing that it’s moral to harvest embryonic stem cells are treating embryos — innocent human beings — as if they can be killed and used for any purpose that might benefit humanity, he said.
…Father Pacholczyk, a priest of the Diocese of Fall River, Mass., said scientists who argue for embryonic stem-cell harvesting and research downplay the humanity of the blastocyst, or five-day-old embryo, which has no discernible human features. However, such scientists are being disingenuous, he noted.
"Any scientist worth his salt knows that they were a blastocyst," he said. Pro-choice scientists really believe "in some instances, it should be allowable to destroy another member of the species because of the great good it will do."
He added that the role of scientists’ egos in the stem-cell debate should not be overlooked. Some scientists would love to receive Nobel Prizes for advancing embryonic stem-cell research, he said.
"It’s like splitting the atom," he said. When asked why scientists can’t be content with focusing on adult stem-cell research, which raises no moral objections, Father Pacholcyzk chuckled and said that adult stem cells "just aren’t as glamorous as" embryonic ones.
Scientists "are human like the rest of us," the priest said, adding that today’s society treats scientists as the ancients did their religious high priests. However, he said, many scientists lack the moral tools to tackle the stem-cell debate. Father Pacholcyzk said that scientists need to become grounded in philosophy, bioethics and religious traditions in order to handle the debate.
"These questions do deal with the interface between science and religion and values and technology," he said. "These questions are critical for the future of mankind." [Source]
3 comments
May God intervene at some point and make this issue go away! Stem-cell research and the harvesting of stem cells is the abortion issue all over again, the killing of innocent human life in order to please the here-and-now. What benefits that may alight from such genocide?
How about designing a Doctor Mengele Fan Club membership card for all the “Catholics” who voted to fund this abomination?
Years ago, my friend married a genetic research scientist. They had made the heartbreaking decision to move to Spain since he could see the writing on the wall in America, and he felt he’d be pressured to do embryonic research. One of his last words to us, before they left, “God will not provide and authentic cure to any suffering through the destruction of His most beloved creation. It may very well have the appearance of such in the future, but it will invariably spell even bigger disaster.”
Four years ago, they were happily expecting their second child. I received a call from my friend frantically asking for prayers, there were growing tumors in her uterus, certainly threatening the baby… but also her. She stated emphatically that no one was going to kill this baby to save her life. The doctors, not hopeful, did more scans anyway to try and confirm the location of the tumors in case there was some way to save both the mother and the child. The tumors were gone.
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