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Pied Piper of Atheism: Philip Pullman and Children's Fantasy
| Pete Vere and Sandra Miesel
God Is No Delusion: A Refutation of Richard Dawkins
| Thomas Crean, O.P.
Socrates Meets Descartes
| Peter Kreeft
Sermon in a Sentence: Saint Thomas Aquinas
| John McClernon
New Outpourings of the Spirit
| Joseph Ratzinger
Meet Henri De Lubac
| Rudolf Voderholzer
Marian Devotion in the Domestic Church
| Catherine & Peter Fournier
Joseph Ratzinger: Life in the Church and Living Theology
| Maximilian Heinrich Heim
The Greek Fathers: Their Lives and Adventures
| Adrian Fortescue
Ignatius Catholic Study Bible: The Letter to the Hebrews
| Scott Hahn and Curtis Mitch
Chastity, Poverty and Obedience
| Mother Mary Francis, P.C.C.
The Blessing of Christmas
| Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger
Chance or Purpose?: Creation, Evolution, and a Rational Faith
| Chrisoph Cardinal Schšnborn
Island of the World: A Novel
| Michael O'Brien
The Order of Things
| James V. Schall, S.J.
The Judge: William P. Clark, Ronald Reagan's Top Hand
| Paul Kengor & Patricia Clark Doerner
Seek that Which is Above
| Pope Benedict XVI
Jesus, the Apostles and the Early Church
| Pope Benedict XVI
God and His Image: An Outline of Biblical Theology
| Dominique Barthelemey
An Invitation to Faith: An A to Z Primer on the Thought of Pope Benedict XVI
| Pope Benedict XVI
Mother Benedict: Foundress of the Abbey of Regina Laudis
| Antoinette Bosco
Pope Benedict XVI: The Conscience of Our Age
| Vincent Twomey
Ronald Knox as Apologist: Wit, Laughter and the Popish Creed
| Fr. Milton Walsh
Christians in China: A.D. 600-2000
| Jean Charbonnier
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UNITED NATIONS CALLS FOR BAN ON ALL HUMAN CLONING
Resolution is non-binding; reflects divided international opinion.
Print-friendly version
NEW YORK | After four years of acrimonious debate, a divided United
Nations passed a non-binding resolution that calls on its member nations
to ban all human cloning.
Cloning advocates immediately said they would continue their work, while
pro-life forces cheered it as a victory of principle and the U.S. bishops’
pro-life office said the resolution will have a "profound impact on
human cloning debates around the world, including in the United States."
"The UN has powerfully demonstrated that naked science is not the be-all
and end-all of the pursuit of human progress. Morality matters too,"
said Wesley J. Smith, author of Consumers Guide to a Brave New World,
in a statement from Ad Hoc Committee of Research Scientists and Physicians.
The 87-34 vote, with 37 abstentions, on March 8th will likely
not stop any of the human cloning endeavors underway worldwide and within
the U.S. In November 2004, California voters in voted to allow the creation
of a $3 billion stem cell institute. A Congressional bill to ban human cloning,
sponsored by Kansas Republican Sen. Sam Brownback, will be introduced again
this year in Washington.
Catholic teaching opposes cloning, whether therapeutic–using the embryo
for spare parts–or reproductive, making a baby from the exact DNA of
its parent. The process is exactly the same in either case; the purpose
is the only difference.
British Health Secretary John Reid said Britain would continue to support
therapeutic cloning. The United Kingdom’s stem cell research industry
remained "open for business," Reid said, according to reporting
by the BBC. Reproductive cloning is banned in Britain but not therapeutic
cloning.
"Fortunately it is non-binding, which means the U.K. can continue to
pursue the promising avenues of research opened up by the use of carefully
regulated human therapeutic cloning," said Professor Richard Gardner,
chair of the British Royal Society’s working group.
Nevertheless, the resolution is a good step, said Cathy Cleaver Ruse, spokesperson
for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Pro-Life Secretariat.
"The U.N.’s new declaration against all forms of human cloning
is a powerful statement in favor of the dignity and inviolability of human
life," said Cleaver Ruse, bishops’ spokesperson, in a statement.
"And it provides no support for so-called ‘therapeutic cloning’
which treats human life as a commodity to be created for experimentation."
On November 19, 2004, the U.N. indefinitely postponed a treaty to ban human
cloning that was proposed by Costa Rico, and supported by the U.S. and Germany.
Most of the nations that voted against the March 8th non-binding
resolution to ban cloning said they wanted to continue therapeutic cloning,
where an embryo is created and the cells extracted while the embryo is destroyed.
Many scientists believe the technology will lead to cures for conditions
such as multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s Disease and Lou Gehrig’s
disease, although no treatments have been developed.
Most Islamic countries abstained because they did not want to rule out therapeutic
cloning. Sen. Brownback, the Senate’s leading opponent of human cloning,
commended the U.N. in a statement, saying " Human cloning leads to
the creation of a new class of human beings subject to the whims of another
class of people. Any time in history when we have subjected one class of
human beings to enslavement by another class has been wrong. This time is
no different."
The Declaration on Human Cloning was negotiated by a U.N. Working Group
in February after attempts to craft a binding global treaty failed last
year. Honduras sponsored the resolution and Costa Rica, the U.S., and Italy
as well as the Vatican and pro-life groups backed the treaty and then the
resolution. Among the countries voting against it were Great Britain, South
Korea and China.
The first known case of cloning of a human embryo was announced in February
2004 by South Korean scientists who grew the embryo for seven or eight days
before destroying it, they said. Mice, sheep, and cats have been cloned
beginning with Dolly the sheep in Britain in 1996.
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G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936) was one of the finest Christian authors and apologists
of the past two hundred years. Raised as an agnostic, he embraced Christianity as a young man, ultimately entering the Catholic Church
in 1922. He wrote hundreds of essays, as well as novels, short stories, poetry, apologetics, literary
criticism, and nearly everything else imaginable. Dale Ahlquist, president and co-founder of the American
Chesterton Society and author of
G.K Chesterton: Apostle of Common Sense, writes, "Chesterton was equally at ease with literary and social criticism,
history, politics, economics, philosophy, and theology. His style is unmistakable, always marked
by humility, consistency, paradox, wit, and wonder. His writing remains as timely and as timeless
today as when it first appeared, even though much of it was published in throw away paper." Read more
about the life and work of this remarkable thinker, author, and apologist.
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Confessions of an Ex-Feminist
by Lorraine V. Murray
Confessions is the honest and heart-rending account of a woman who was born into a Catholic family, attended parochial schools and
fully embraced the beliefs of her faith, but ran into major roadblocks in college. Amidst the radical feminist college environment of
the 1960's, she lost her faith, and her morality, jumping aboard the bandwagon of "free love." She indulged in a series of love relationships
in college, all of which crashed and burned. Despite the obvious contradiction between feminist teachings and her own experience,
Murray still believed she had to free herself from the yoke of tradition. Attaining a doctorate in philosophy, with an emphasis on the
feminist writings of Simone de Beauvoir, Murray taught philosophy in college. For many years, she launched a personal vendetta against
God and the Catholic Church in the classroom, trying to persuade students that God did not exist, mocking values Catholics hold dear,
and touted feminism as the cure for many social ills. When she discovered she was pregnant, Murray followed the route that feminists
offer as a solution for unmarried women. Much to her surprise, her abortion was a shattering emotional experience, which she grieved
over for years. It was the first tragic chink in her feminist armor.
Read more about Confessions of an Ex-Feminist, or
read an excerpt from the book.
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