Illustration of early-stage embryo. (CNS)

Here’s what Cardinal Francis George of Chicago said about Dignitas Personae, the new Vatican instruction on bioethics released today:

“We welcome the Instruction as theologians, medical personnel, researchers and married couples consider new scientific and medical procedures that have profound ethical implications bearing upon the procreation of children and the integrity of marriage,” said Cardinal George in a Dec. 12 statement issued in his capacity as president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Added Cardinal George, “We applaud developments which advance medical progress with respect for the sanctity of human life from the moment of conception. We oppose discarding or manipulating innocent lives to benefit future generations, or promoting the creation of new human life in depersonalized ways that substitute for the loving union between a husband and wife.”

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has published Dignitas Personae to provide clarification of Church teachings regarding controversial bioethical issues such as gene therapy, the creation of embryos by IVF and the storage of “surplus” IVF embryos, embryonic stem cell research and cloning.

The guiding principle of the instruction is embodied by its title, which in English means “The Dignity of a Person”: No medical procedure should ever be conducted that violates the intrinsic dignity that every human person possesses from the moment of conception.

“The Vatican said the new document, as a papally approved instruction of a doctrinal nature, falls under the category of the ‘ordinary magisterium,’ which is the Church’s teaching authority, and is to be received by Catholics ‘with the religious assent of their spirit,’” Catholic News Service reported in this article about Dignitas Personae.

Look for detailed coverage of the document in the next print issue of the Register.

— Tom McFeely