CLONING IS MORALLY AND ETHICALLY UNACCEPTABLE

VATICAN CITY, NOV 20, 2001 (VIS) - Yesterday in New York, Archbishop Renato Martino, Holy See permanent observer to the U.N., addressed the Sixth Committee on the International Convention Against the Reproductive Cloning of Human Beings. He repeated the Holy See's unequivocal position, "that calls for the rejection and prohibition of any and all aspects relating to the cloning of humans on a moral and ethical basis."

He stated that "those born as a result of cloning would begin life as an anomaly in terms of the relationship with parents and relatives through an act of predetermination which is at the same time deliberate and arbitrary in relation to their corporeity. The ethical and juridical consequences which will arise from this act would contaminate and desecrate the future of humankind."

He referred to a meeting of the United States Academy of Science last summer where "experts made the explosive proposal to initiate the practice of cloning for reproductive purposes as a technique of assisted procreation for couples who are unable to conceive a child naturally, or by using other recognized methods. ... Those attending that meeting ... rejected the use of cloning at a scientific level as a dangerous adventure, with serious risks and predictable failures."

Archbishop Martino reiterated the Holy See position on cloning, noting that it had been set forth in a June 1997 document by the Pontifical Academy for Life entitled "Reflections on Cloning," which "provided a moral and ethical argument for the rejection of all aspects of human cloning." He added that this opposition by the Holy See is derived "first and foremost from anthropological and ethical reasons. ... In fact, this discussion is based upon the generation of a child outside the act of personal love. Such an act excludes paternity and maternity and is an asexual and agamic conception, thus resulting in a lack of union between the person and the gametes."

"Science," said the nuncio, "must be free from every form of abuse and every form of submission to the interests of any party."

The archbishop stated that "Therapeutic cloning, the production of human embryos as suppliers of specialized stem cells, embryos to be used in the treatment of certain illnesses and then destroyed, must be addressed and prohibited. This exploitation of human beings, sought by certain scientific and industrial circles, and pushed forward by underlying economic interests, retains all its ethical repugnance as an even more serious offence against human dignity and the right to life, since it involves human beings (embryos) who are created in order to be destroyed."

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