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| Bishop Speaks | ||
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| November 29, 2007 Edition | ||
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MADISON -- Madison Bishop Robert C. Morlino praised the very promising breakthroughs made by the Japanese research team of Dr. Shinya Yamanaka and the University of Wisconsin-Madison team of Dr. James Thomson in the derivation of pluripotent stem cell lines from human somatic cells.
"Catholic voices in the bio-medical community have consistently claimed that ethical alternatives could be found to make the destruction of human life through embryonic stem cell research unnecessary," Bishop Morlino said.
"I continue to support the successful work being done by so many researchers using adult stem cells and I thank and congratulate those researchers and scientists who have now found a seemingly ethical way to replicate 'embryonic' or pluripotent stem cells without destroying human lives.
"Now that this breakthrough has been made and research with pluripotent stem cells can move forward in a seemingly ethical way, I reiterate my insistence that there is never a reason to sacrifice human lives for the sake of hoped-for but heretofore unrealized scientific advances.
"As chairman of the board for the National Catholic Bioethics Center (NCBC) I also commend NCBC President Dr. John Haas and so many of our bio-ethicists who have long claimed that an ethical way of reproducing such pluripotent stem cells could be found and who have promoted and conducted research to that effect," said Bishop Morlino.