Pope Meets Bush, Condemns Stem-Cell Research
July 23 -- In their first meeting, Pope John Paul II today urged President Bush to "reject" embryonic stem-cell research, and Bush promised to take the pope's view into consideration as he weighs a much-anticipated decision on federal funding.
"A free and virtuous society, which America aspires to be, must reject practices that devalue and violate human life at any stage from conception to natural death," the pontiff told Bush following a closed-door meeting at Castel Gandolfo, the pope's summer residence.
"I'll take that point of view into consideration as I make up my mind on a very difficult issue confronting the United States of America," the president said later at a joint news conference with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. "I do care about the opinions of people — particularly someone as profound as the Holy Father."
Pope Warns of 'Coarsening of Consciences'
Scientists say embryonic stem-cell research could lead to cures for diabetes, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and other diseases, as well as new, more effective treatments for debilitating brain and spinal cord injuries.
But the Roman Catholic Church and many conservative U.S. lawmakers who are opposed to abortion say the studies are immoral because they use cells extracted from human embryos, which are destroyed in the process.
"Experience is already showing how a tragic coarsening of consciences accompanies the assault on innocent human life in the womb, leading to accommodation and acquiescence in the face of other related evils such as euthanasia, infanticide and, most recently, proposals for the creation for research purposes of human embryos destined to destruction in the process," John Paul said this morning.
The Jones Institute for Reproductive Medicine in Norfolk, Va., announced earlier this month that it has and would continue to create embryos specifically for the purpose of stem-cell research. But proponents of the research, including a handful of senators and congressmen who oppose abortion, point out that thousands of embryos left over from in vitro fertilization treatments are routinely discarded by fertility clinics.
Bush Nears Stem-Cell Decision
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