Qld: Embryonic stem cell research immoral says Catholic Church
By Vera Devai
BRISBANE, April 3 AAP - Allowing embryonic stem cell research would destroy the moralfabric of society, a Catholic Church bioethics expert said today.
Queensland Bioethics Centre director and Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane spokesmanRay Campbell said the church remained opposed to the medical procedure, which will comeunder the microscope at the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) this Friday.
The Catholic Church could not condone a scientific procedure which justified the destructionof human life, Mr Campbell said.
"Embryonic stem cells are harvested by destroying embryos and we find that objectionablethat we should destroy human life in that way," Mr Campbell said.
Prime Minister John Howard has been consulting with church leaders ahead of this week'sCOAG meeting, which will try to resolve the issue.
The scientific community and state Labor leaders support the use of IVF surplus embryosfor stem cell research, but Mr Howard has not yet made his position clear.
"I think for the first time you are going to embody in law that certain human livesare disposable," Mr Campbell said.
"That has an effect on the moral fabric of our society which is already substantiallyundermined in various ways in the respect for human life and discriminating against certain
stages of human life, so this will carry that further."
Mr Campbell said the public was misinformed about the need for embryonic stem cellresearch, which had not been proven to be successful.
Adult stem cell research, which the Catholic Church favoured, was advancing and flourishingwith promising results, he said.
"I can't predict the way that science would go, but I would think if we held off fromdoing this for a little bit longer then the advances being made in adult stem cell researchwould probably make the need to go down this track much less."
AAP ved/sc/las/sb
KEYWORD: STEMCELL CATHOLIC
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