US bishops reject embryonic stem cell research

The US Catholic Bishops' Conference on Friday issued an explicit rejection of research using stem cells from human embryos.

It was the first formal statement issued by the Catholic church's US bishops devoted exclusively to the issue.

"It now seems undeniable that once we cross the fundamental moral line that prevents us from treating any fellow human being as a mere object of research, there is no stopping point," the bishops said.

"The only moral stance that affirms the human dignity of all of us is to reject the first step down this path."

Scientists say stem cell therapy holds great medical promise, including treatment of neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's or Alzheimer's. Stem cells can develop into any of hundreds of different cell types in the body, replacing ones lost or damaged by disease.

But research has been highly controversial because, until recently, these pluripotent cells were only extractable from human embryos.

"The false assumption that a good end can justify direct killing has been the source of much evil in our world," the bishops said.

"As believers who recognize each human life as the gift of an infinitely loving God, we insist there is no human being however small or seemingly insignificant who does not matter to God," they added.

The bishops are holding their semi-annual spring meeting in Orlando, Florida and will continue meeting behind closed doors through Saturday.

They have also been grappling with the thorny topic of sexual abuse of children by US Catholic priests at the gathering.

Thursday, they unveiled results of a study saying that US Catholic officials told families the outcome of their probes into accusations of sexual abuse by priests in less than one-third of the cases.

The preliminary study into the sex abuse scandal that has rocked the church showed that 40 percent of cases were reported between 1988-1998.

During that decade, nine out of 10 US dioceses received reports of sexual abuse by priests, said the study by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice at the City University of New York.

Families of alleged victims had to make more than one effort to contact the diocese in 60 percent of the cases, it said.

"In 75 percent of the cases the dioceses conducted an investigation but the family was contacted about the result of the diocesan investigation in less than one-third of the cases," the study said.

The research was based on studies of identity and behavior of leaders and graduates of seminaries, and interviews with priests and bishops. The final findings will be released in a few years.

The semi-annual spring meeting of US bishops came two months after Pope Benedict XVI paid a landmark visit to the United States that was aimed at healing the wounds caused by the priest sex abuse scandal.

Benedict referred to the scandal repeatedly during his stay, and took the unprecedented and unexpected step of meeting in Washington with victims of predator priests.

The US church was shaken financially and morally by the scandal, which erupted in 2002 when the then-archbishop of Boston confessed to having shielded a priest he knew had sexually abused youngsters.

Numbers put forward by the US church show there have been 14,000 victims of some 4,000 to 5,000 clerics since the 1960s, and both abuse victims and their supporters have left the church over the scandal.

© 2008 AFP

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