Excommunicated scientists

(ANSA) - Vatican City, June 28 - The Vatican stepped up its fight against embryonic stem cell research on Wednesday, saying that scientists involved in such work would be excommunicated .

Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, head of the Vatican department dealing with family affairs, said in a magazine interview that "destroying human embryos is equivalent to an abortion... it's the same thing" .

"Excommunication applies to all women, doctors and researchers who eliminate embryos," the cardinal told Catholic publication Famiglia Cristiana .

Trujillo said that "certain crimes" were being treated as if they had "become rights" .

He added that the Catholic Church was worried because "even talking about the defence of life and family rights is being treated as a sort of crime against the state in some countries - a form of social disobedience or discrimination against women" .

This would be a latae sententiae excommunication which is automatic, though would depend on requirements set forth in Canon 1321. I believe the Canons have been interpreted to not apply to lawmakers who help to pass laws that make these immoral actions possible in the first place. There is a big loophole that shows why Catholic lawmakers are not subjected to this Canon. It does not apply if "a person who lacked the use of reason,.."