Vatican Ethics Guide Stirs Controversy

Monsignor Elio Sgreccia, the Vatican's top official on bioethics questions, and Maria Luisa Di Pietro, of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Rome, attend a news conference on bioethics at the Vatican. (By Riccardo De Luca -- Associated Press)

The church objects to such technologies for many reasons. Perhaps most important, it argues that life begins at conception, and so anything that results in the destruction of an embryo is immoral. The church also objects to any technology that separates procreation from sex between a married heterosexual couple, which makes many modern infertility therapies, such as in vitro fertilization, "illicit." Other types of infertility treatments are permitted, such as surgery to open blocked fallopian tubes.

The document also for the first time raises questions about whether it is moral for people to "adopt" embryos left over from IVF -- a practice President Bush highlighted when he restricted federal funding of stem cell research. While the practice may be "praiseworthy" in some ways, the Vatican document warns that it could help perpetuate the creation of more embryos.

Megan Corcoran of the Snowflakes Frozen Embryo Adoption Program of Nightlight Christian Adoptions in Fullerton, Calif., which has arranged for 371 embryos to be adopted since 1998, was disappointed. "Each life that God has created should have a chance to be born," she said.

The church endorsed research using cells from umbilical cord blood and adult stem cells, and for the first time encouraged research of alternative methods that have been proposed for obtaining embryonic stem cells, such as from cells altered so they could never become embryos.

The document also for the first time said vaccines that originally may have been developed using cells from aborted fetuses are acceptable.

"That may settle the question for a lot of people to not refrain from getting their children vaccinated because of the source of the vaccine," said Kathleen Raviele, president of the Catholic Medical Association.

Cristina L.H. Traina, who studies Catholic ethics at Northwestern University, said she saw several "major departures" in the document.

A ban on freezing eggs, for example, did not explicitly mention the freezing of ovaries for women who have cancer and want the organs preserved so they might be able to have children. "It leaves that possibility open."

Traina also called it potentially a "major departure" to see the Vatican ban genetic alterations that would be passed on to generations specifically "in the present state of research," leaving an opening to more advanced technologies that are safer.

But futuristic possibilities such as cloning and genetic engineering allowing parents to select the traits they want in their babies, in the church's view, in essence would put humans perilously close to playing the role of God.

The document, however, drew criticism from many groups.

"The Vatican's statement on bioethics shows that it is once again on the wrong side of science and the needs of contemporary society," said Jon O'Brien, president of Catholics for Choice.

Infertility doctors and stem cell researchers defended their efforts.

"It has contributed to the quality of life of patients and families through the improved ability to have children, which clearly is a worthwhile goal and a focus of many couples in their life goals," said Robert G. Brzyski of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine.

Said George Daley of the International Society for Stem Cell Research: "Cells are not people and embryos are not people, and my first responsibility as a physician is to patients -- not cells in a petri dish."