Family & bioethics

Catholic leaders in Europe hailed the decision to give a Nobel Prize to two pioneers of adult stem-cell research as a triumph for ethics.

A statement from the Commission of the Bishops' Conferences of the European Community (COMECE) said that awarding the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine to John B. Gurdon and Shinya Yamanaka represented an "important milestone" in recognizing the superior potential of adult stem-cell research over destructive experimentation on human embryonic stem cells. Read more »

In rejecting research using embryonic stem cells, the Catholic Church is not trying to impede science or delay treatment that can save lives, Pope Benedict XVI said.

The church's opposition to the use and destruction of embryos flows from the conviction that all human life is sacred and that destroying the most defenseless will never lead to a true benefit for humanity, the pope said Nov. 12 to participants in a Vatican-sponsored conference on research using adult stem cells. Read more »

"The family born of a covenant of love and of complete and sincere commitment between a man and woman in marriage, is not a private entity enclosed in itself.

"By its vocation, it makes a wonderful and decisive contribution to the common good of society and the mission of the Church”, writes Pope Benedict XVI in a message to the II Ecuadorian National Family Congress. Read more »

Europe’s top court has banned patenting any stem-cell process that involves destroying a human embryo, dealing what some scientists said was a “devastating” blow to an emerging field of medical research.

Researchers fear the ruling by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) will hobble development in an area of science that could provide a range of 21st-century medicines for diseases from Parkinson’s to blindness. Read more »

Amanda Schulten (left) of Marengo,Illinois,  a small town near the Wisconsin line, is a devout Catholic and refused to end her pregnancy.

She has named the unborn girls Faith and Hope and is tracking her pregnancy in a blog, amanda-faithhopelove.blogspot.com. On the main page is the poignant poem she penned, “I Love You.” Read more »

The President of the German Conference of Bishops, Robert Zollitsch (left) is convinced that in the near future, the Catholic Church will reform its position toward believers who divorce and remarry. “It’s a question of mercy - shortly we will be discussing it intensely,” said Zollitsch in an interview with the German weekly Die Zeit.

“I don’t think that the goal of celibacy is the solution for the worldwide Church, but I think that we will take steps forward on the question of divorced and remarried persons – and I think we will do it while I am still alive,” continued the seventy-three year old Archbishop of Freiburg. Read more »

The British House of Lords has rejected an effort to ban the creation of "hybrid" embryos combining human and animal tissues.

By a vote of 268- 96 the House of Lords defeated a proposed amendment to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill that would have prohibited the creation of the hybrid embryos. Read more »