Pope Benedict has been very vocal lately on the subject of bioethics. Earlier this week he warned to the “seductive” powers of science:
“In an age when scientific developments attract and seduce with the possibilities they offer, it’s more important than ever to educate our contemporaries’ consciences so that science does not become the criteria for goodness.”
And recently he urged members of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to focus on the “difficult problem of bioethics”, highlighting the freezing of human embryos, pre-implantation diagnosis, stem cell research and attempts at human cloning which
“clearly show how, with artificial insemination outside the body, the barrier protecting human dignity has been broken. When human beings in the weakest and most defenseless stage of their existence are selected, abandoned, killed or used as pure ‘biological matter,’ how can it be denied that they are no longer being treated as ‘someone’ but as ‘something,’ thus placing the very concept of human dignity in doubt.”
As science progresses with increasing threats to the dignity of human life Pope Benedict is taking seriously the Church’s important duty to “contribute to promoting the formation of consciences of many of our brothers and sisters,” Indeed, the Church must take the lead in educating the faithful on these complex and often emotional areas of science.