Vatican leans on embryonic stem cell work

UPI Religion & Spirituality Forum

VATICAN CITY, June 28 (UPI) — Roman Catholics involved in embryonic stem cell research now face excommunication, the Vatican said Wednesday. The 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," ANSA reported. "Excommunication applies to all women, doctors and researchers who eliminate embryos," Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo said. Trujillo said that "certain crimes" were being treated as if they had "become rights." He also said the Roman Catholic Church was worried because "even talking about the defense 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." Embryonic stem-cell research techniques involve destroying human embryos to extract their stem cells, which have the ability to grow into any tissue of the body. Researchers believe such cells could eventually be used to treat a host of ailments including Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's and diabetes. Trujillo's comments come just before the Fifth World Meeting of Families, due to be held in Valencia, Spain, from July 1 to 9