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EMBRYOS-EUROPE Jul-26-2006 (520 words) xxxi
Vatican newspaper criticizes EU vote on stem-cell research funding
By Carol Glatz
Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The European Union's decision to continue funding for embryonic stem-cell research represents "the macabre result of a twisted sense of logic," said the Vatican newspaper.
In its July 26 edition, L'Osservatore Romano criticized the EU ministers' attempts to find a middle ground between pro-life concerns and pressures for stem-cell research. Instead of finding an ethical solution, the European Union has condoned "a macabre illicit trade" between researchers who harvest stem cells and those who work with stem-cell lines, the Vatican newspaper said.
A proposal to fund research on stem cells was amended to clarify that the funding would not go to harvesting cells that involve the destruction of human embryos, but rather would be limited to research on stem-cell lines already derived from embryos.
Italy and Germany swung the July 24 vote by national ministers of the European Council to give the package majority approval. Austria, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Poland and Slovakia rejected the proposal. The European Council is the main decision-making body of the European Union.
The full European Parliament narrowly approved a draft version of the EU research policy and budget in mid-June. The July vote marked the second step of the budget's approval process.
The package, which represents $63.7 billion dollars of research funding for the next seven years, still has to undergo a second vote in the full European Parliament this fall.
Researchers who use already existing stem-cell lines are still in collusion with those who destroy the embryos to begin with, said Bishop Elio Sgreccia, head of the Pontifical Academy for Life.
He told Vatican Radio July 25 that the two parties have "overlapping interests," so researchers who use existing embryonic stem-cell lines are still in "complicity, collaboration" with those responsible for the embryo's destruction.
He said the EU decision violated a "primordial right" to life and authorized "the use of a human being on the basis of 'I kill you in order to gain benefits for others.'"
Bishop Sgreccia said the EU's move was seriously inconsistent with its stated concern for ending the violence in the Middle East.
"To not be opposed to research that is destructive and inherently violent" is "an act of serious inconsistency," he said.
Meanwhile, the Commission of the Bishops' Conferences of the European Community, or COMECE, said it, too, was "perplexed by the contradiction" of the EU's latest decision. The vote represents a desire to "promote therapies aiming to save human life" while at the same time attacking human life, it said.
The bishops said that instead of using embryonic stem cells scientists could use stem cells from adults or the umbilical cord.
"The Catholic Church recognizes the importance of developing an economy based on knowledge, research and innovation" and recognizes the important contributions science and research make in improving humanity's quality of life, the bishops' statement said.
But destroying human embryos "is not acceptable," it said, and the bishops urged Europeans to "do all in their power" to foster debate on the issue and help put stricter limits on EU funding for stem-cell research.
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Copyright (c) 2006 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.
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