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1.: Vatican conference to study origin, development of embryo From: Stephen Meyer

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1.: Vatican conference to study origin, development of embryo

Posted by: "Stephen Meyer" meyer74@bellsouth.net stephen_meyer_stemcells

Tue Nov 6, 2007 5:59 pm (PST)

Vatican conference to study origin, development of embryo
[http://img.iht.com/images/dot_h.gif] The Associated Press Published:
November 6, 2007 [http://img.iht.com/images/dot_h.gif]
VATICAN CITY
<http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/11/06/europe/EU-GEN-Vatican-Embryo.\
php#> : The Vatican is organizing a conference on the origin and
development of the human embryo, saying current bioethical debates
regarding stem cells, cloning and assisted fertility often overlook what
it considers the crucial origin of organisms.
Church teaching holds that human life begins at conception. The Vatican
has been on an increasingly vocal campaign in recent years against
abortion and technologies such as embryonic stem cell research which
destroy embryos.

The Nov. 15-17 conference is part of a Vatican teaching and research
program involving six pontifical universities. The program was created
in 2003 to further explore the relationship between science and faith.

"The study of human life from the point of view of its individual origin
acquires a particular interest in today's world," said the Rev. Rafael
Pascual, dean of the philosophy department at the Pontifical Regina
Apostolorum university, which is hosting the conference.

He cited issues such as assisted fertility, cloning, genetic
manipulation and embryonic stem cell research.

The Vatican program, "Science, Theology and the Ontological Quest," was
created to help what officials say was a mutual prejudice between
religion and science that has bedeviled the Catholic Church since the
time of Galileo.

The project, which is under the auspices of the Vatican's Pontifical
Council for Culture, was inspired by Pope John Paul II's 1992
declaration that the church's 17th century denunciation of Galileo was
an error resulting from "tragic mutual incomprehension."

Galileo was condemned for supporting Nicholas Copernicus' discovery that
the Earth revolved around the sun; church teaching at the time placed
Earth at the center of the universe.

The head of the Pontifical Council for Culture, Monsignor Gianfranco
Ravasi, was asked if in the scope of its research the Vatican would
entertain scientific views that differed from its own regarding the
origin of life.

He said that in research, there must always be respect paid between two
sides but at the same time each side must hold fast to its beliefs
without compromise.

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