Papal Teaching

No one can fail to see the dramatic and distressing consequences of thispragmatism that conceives of truth and justice as malleable qualitiesthat human beings themselves can shape. One relevant example amongothers is man's attempt to control the sources of life throughexperiments in human cloning. Here, we can see for ourselves the themethe Meeting [for Friendship Among Peoples] refers to: the violence withwhich people seek to appropriate the true and the just, reducing them tovalues which can arbitrarily be disposed of without recognizing anykind of limit, apart from those fixed and continuously surpassed bytheir technological operability.

...Christ taught another way: it is that of respect for human beings;the priority of every method of research must be to know the truth abouthuman beings, in order to serve them and not to manipulate themaccording to a project sometimes arrogantly seen as better even than theplan of the Creator.

Pope John Paul II, Message for the 25th Meeting for Friendship Among Peoples (August 2004), nos. 2, 3

I am speaking of a tragic spiral of death which includes murder,suicide, abortion, euthanasia.... To this list we must add irresponsiblepractices of genetic engineering, such as the cloning and use of humanembryos for research, which are justified by an illegitimate appeal tofreedom, to cultural progress, to the advancement of mankind. When theweakest and most vulnerable members of society are subjected to suchatrocities, the very idea of the human family, built on the value of theperson, on trust, respect and mutual support, is dangerously eroded. Acivilization based on love and peace must oppose these experiments,which are unworthy of man.

Pope John Paul II, Message for the Celebration of the World Day of Peace (2001), no. 19

In any event, methods that fail to respect the dignity and value of theperson must always be avoided. I am thinking in particular of attemptsat human cloning with a view to obtaining organs for transplants: thesetechniques, insofar as they involve the manipulation and destruction ofhuman embryos, are not morally acceptable, even when their proposed goalis good in itself. Science itself points to other forms of therapeutic interventionwhich would not involve cloning or the use of embryonic cells, butrather would make use of stem cells taken from adults. This is thedirection that research must follow if it wishes to respect the dignityof each and every human being, even at the embryonic stage.

Pope John Paul II, Address to the 18th International Congress of the Transplantation Society (2000), no. 8

[T]he distinction that is sometimes drawn between reproductive andtherapeutic cloning seems specious. Both involve the same technicalcloning process and differ only in goal. Both forms of cloning involvedisrespect for the dignity of the human being. In fact, from an ethicaland anthropological standpoint, so-called therapeutic cloning, creatinghuman embryos with the intention of destroying them, even if undertakenwith the goal of possibly helping sick patients in the future, seemsvery clearly incompatible with respect for the dignity of the humanbeing, making one human life nothing more than the instrument ofanother. Further, given the fact that cloned embryos would beindistinguishable from embryos created by in vitro fertilization andcould readily be implanted into wombs and brought to birth, we believeit would be practically impossible to enforce an instrument that allowedone type of cloning while banning the other.

Archbihop Celestino Migliore to the United Nations on the International Convention Against the Cloning of Human Beings (October 21, 2004)

Mr. Chairman, the science may be complex, but the issue for us is simpleand straightforward. The matter of human cloning that involves thecreation of human embryos is the story of the beginning of humanlife.... If reproductive cloning of human beings contravenes the law ofnature a principle with which all delegations appear to agree sodoes the cloning of the same human embryo that is slated for researchpurposes. A cloned embryo, which is not destined for implantation into awomb but is created for the sole purpose of extraction of stem cellsand other materials, is destined for pre-programmed destruction...

If the United Nations were to ban reproductive cloning without banningcloning for research, this would, for the first time, involve this bodyin legitimizing something extraordinary: the creation of human beingsfor the express purpose of destroying them. If human rights are to meananything, at any time, anywhere in the world, then surely no one canhave the right to do such a thing. Human rights flow from therecognition that human beings have an intrinsic dignity that is based onthe fact that they are human. Human embryos are human, even if theyare cloned. If the rest of us are to have the rights that flow from therecognition of this dignity, then we must act to ban cloning in all itsforms.

Archbishop Celestino Migliore to the United Nations on the International Convention Against the Cloning of Human Beings (2003)

The Holy See looks upon the distinction between "reproductive" andso-called "therapeutic" (or "experimental") cloning to be unacceptable.This distinction masks the reality of the creation of a human being forthe purpose of destroying him or her to produce embryonic stem celllines or to conduct other experimentation. Human embryonic cloning mustbe prohibited in all cases regardless of the aims that are pursued.The Holy See supports research on stem cells of post-natal origin sincethis approach - as has been demonstrated by the most recent scientificstudies - is a sound, promising, and ethical way to achieve tissuetransplantation and cell therapy that could benefit humanity....

Cloning a human embryo, while intentionally planning its demise, wouldinstitutionalize the deliberate, systemic destruction of nascent humanlife in the name of unknown "good" of potential therapy or scientificdiscovery.... Since embryonic cloning generates a new human life gearednot for a future of human flourishing but for a future destined toservitude and certain destruction, it is a process that cannot bejustified on the grounds that it may be able to assist other humanbeings.

Interventionby the Holy See Delegation to the United Nations, at the SpecialCommittee of the 57th General Assembly on Human Embryonic Cloning (2002)

The act of cloning is a predetermined act which forces the image andlikeness of the donor and is actually a form of imposing dominion overanother human being which denies the human dignity of the child andmakes him or her a slave to the will of others. The child would be seenas an object and a product of one's fancy rather than as a unique humanbeing, equal in dignity to those who "created" him or her. Thepractice of cloning would usurp the role of creator and would thus beseen as an offence before God....

There remains, however the fact that reproductive cloning is only partof the overall issue. Therapeutic cloning, the production of humanembryos as suppliers of specialized stem cells, embryos to be used inthe treatment of certain illnesses and then destroyed, must be addressedand prohibited. This exploitation of human beings, sought by certainscientific and industrial circles, and pushed forward by underlyingeconomic interests, retains all its ethical repugnance as an even moreserious offence against human dignity and the right to life, since itinvolves human beings (embryos) who are created in order to bedestroyed.

Archbishop Renato Martino to the United Nations, on an International Convention Against the Reproductive Cloning of Human Beings (2001)

Since 1988, two great global divides have grown deeper: the first is theever more tragic phenomenon of poverty and social discrimination ...,and the other, more recent and less widely condemned, concerns theunborn child ... as the subject of experimentation and technologicalintervention (through techniques of artificial procreation, the use of"superfluous embryos," so-called therapeutic cloning, etc.). Here thereis a risk of a new form of racism, for the development of thesetechniques could lead to the creation of a "sub-category of humanbeings," destined basically for the convenience of certain others. Thiswould be a new and terrible form of slavery. Regrettably, it cannot bedenied that the temptation of eugenics is still latent, especially ifpowerful commercial interests exploit it. Governments and thescientific community must be very vigilant in this domain.

Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, Contribution to the World Conference Against Racism held in Durban, South Africa (2001), no. 21

In the cloning process the basic relationships of the human person areperverted: filiation, consanguinity, kinship, parenthood.... In vitrofertilization has already led to the confusion of parentage, but cloningwill mean the radical rupture of these bonds....

The "human cloning" project represents the terrible aberration to whichvalue-free science is driven and is a sign of the profound malaise ofour civilization, which looks to science, technology and the "quality oflife" as surrogates for the meaning of life and its salvation....

Halting the human cloning project is a moral duty which must also be translated into cultural, social and legislative terms.

Pontifical Academy for Life, "Reflections on Cloning" (1997), no. 3

[A]ttempts or hypotheses for obtaining a human being without anyconnection with sexuality through "twin fission," cloning orparthenogenesis are to be considered contrary to the moral law, sincethey are in opposition to the dignity both of human procreation and ofthe conjugal union.

Congregationfor the Doctrine of the Faith, Instruction on Respect for Human Life inits Origin and on the Dignity of Procreation (Donum vitae) (1987), I

Revising the name given to the killing reduces its perceived gravity. This is the ecology of law, moral reasoning and language in action.Bad law and defective moral reasoning produce the evasive language tojustify evil.... The same sanitized marketing is now deployed on behalfof...fetal experimentation and human cloning. Each reduces the humanperson to a problem or an object. United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, "Living the Gospel of Life: A Challenge to American Catholics" (1998), II, 11

Human cloning does not treat any disease but turns human reproductioninto a manufacturing process, by which human beings are mass-produced topreset specifications. The cloning procedure is so dehumanizing thatsome scientists want to treat the resulting human beings as subhuman,creating them solely so they can destroy them for their cells andtissues....

While cloning may never produce any clinical benefit, its attack on human dignity has already begun.

BishopWilton D. Gregory, President of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops,on reports that a biotechnology firm has cloned human embryos (2001)

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Selected Quotes from Church Documents: On Human Cloning