New Vatican Document on Bioethical IssuesDecember 14, 2008
The Vatican has released a new document Dignitas Personae that seeks to provide some responses to new bioethical questions. While seeking to encourage the "formation of conscience," the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith also wants to encourage biomedical research that is respectful of the dignity of every human being and of procreation.
Dignitas Personae follows in a series of documents from the Vatican dealing with the respect for human life—at all stages: Casti Conubii (December 31, 1930), Humanae Vitae (July 25, 1968), Veritatis splendor (August 6, 1993), Evangelium Vitae (March 25, 1995). It is a sequel to Donum Vitae: Instruction on Respect for Human Life in its Origin and on the Dignity of Procreation,” (February 22, 1987).
Dignitas Personae refers to some timeless principles and speaks about matters already covered by the Vatican (such IVF—"in vitro" fertilization ) and the abuse and manipulation of human life in its earliest stages that this technology made possible.
There are also other judgments in the document – on human cloning, embryonic and adult stem cell research, genetic engineering, drugs and devices for preventing implantation, etc.—that confirm and elaborate statements made in past speeches or other documents from Pope John Paul II or Pope Benedict XVI, or in the Holy See’s interventions at international forums such as the United Nations.
Beyond this Dignitas Personae addresses some very new issues for the very first time:
- Some proposed methods for altering the technique for human cloning so it will produce embryonic stem cells but not an embryo (e.g., “altered nuclear transfer”);
- Methods that require clarification before they could ethically be applied to humans, as one would have to be certain that a new human being is never created and then destroyed by the procedure;
- Proposals for “adoption” of abandoned or unwanted frozen embryos;
- A more detailed study of the moral concerns about use of “germ-line” genetic engineering in human beings, for treatments and especially for supposed “enhancement” or tailoring of human characteristics.
See complete document…