Madison Bishop Eager to Discuss Stem Cell Issues

Madison Bishop Robert Morlino said, in an interview last week, that the field of bioethics is a complicated one, with rapidly changing technology that makes keeping up to date a challenge.

"The destruction of human life is always and intrinsically evil[...]

Since embryonic stem cell research invariably requires the destruction of the embryo and destruction of an embryo can never be morally licit," embryonic stem cell research is contrary to the teachings of the Catholic Church, he said

For background information on biotechnology issues - as discussed in his recent columns in the Catholic Herald - Morlino relies on the Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, a molecular biologist and director of education for the National Catholic Bioethics Center in Philadelphia. The center analyzes moral issues arising in health care and the life sciences, from feeding tubes for patients in persistent vegetative states, to inducing labor, to embryonic stem cell research.

Pacholczyk last month testified against embryonic stem cell research before the state legislature in Massachusetts, and has spoken on the issue in Wisconsin.

Morlino said he, too, would like to address the issue with state leaders...


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