Vatican Bioethics Document

Posted by Tom McFeely

Monday, December 01, 2008 1:08 PM

“It’s what you’d expect, mostly a reiteration. We’re happy with it, but of course the world’s going to hate it.”

That’s what a Vatican official told Register correspondent Edward Pentin about the new Vatican instruction on bioethics that will be released Dec. 12.

The Vatican official was predicting the likely reaction of much of the secular world to the upcoming document from the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith.

“The document was designed to examine ethical issues in biological research and health care that have emerged in recent years,” Catholic News Service reported Nov. 26.

CNS noted that when the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith met in plenary session last January, “U.S. Cardinal William J. Levada, the congregation prefect, said much of their discussion focused on the field of bioethics.

“At that time, the cardinal hinted that a document was in the works. He said it might examine new therapeutic options and some ethical problems that were not explicitly considered by two previous Church documents: the doctrinal congregation’s instruction Donum Vitae (The Gift of Life) in 1987 and Pope John Paul II’s encyclical Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life) in 1995.”

Added CNS, “Pope Benedict XVI was head of the doctrinal congregation when both those documents were published. Addressing the congregation in January, the Pope said the new ethical problems included the freezing of human embryos, the selective reduction of embryos, pre-implant diagnosis, research on embryonic stem cells and attempts at human cloning.

“The Pope said the starting point for the Church’s reflection remains the same: ‘The two fundamental criteria for moral discernment in this field are unconditional respect for the human being as a person from the moment of conception to natural death, (and) respect for the originality of the transmission of human life through the acts proper to spouses.’”

Look for detailed coverage in the Register of the new bioethics document and its significance after it is released Dec. 12 — the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe, patroness of the unborn..

— Tom McFeely

Filed under benedict xvi, bioethics, cardinal levada, vatican