January 9th 2009
The Vatican’s bioethics document
By Marie Alena Castle
For the Vatican to present its recent bioethics document as an “instruction” and assume it has the authority to decide moral issues for society is not only arrogant but ludicrous. As a self-appointed moral watchdog over scientific progress it has no standing because its views have no foundation in reality.
Historically, the Vatican’s position on personhood (when a fertilized egg becomes a person) has been based on the theological notion of ensoulment. When this occurred during pregnancy was the subject of theological debate for centuries but now is assumed to be at the moment of conception when female and male DNA combine.
If the Vatican wants to be involved in scientific matters, it should do what scientists do-show solid evidence for its assertions that souls exist and that conception produces one. If it can’t do that it has no more business instructing medical researchers about bioethics than astrologers have instructing astronomers about cosmology. As the stem cell researcher said, as quoted in your article, “Cells are not people” and a physician’s responsibility “is to patients-not cells in a petri dish.”
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