Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Seoul (Fides Service) - Respect for life from the moment of conception, protect rights of human embryo which is not an object; no to the abhorrent practice of cloning which involves an attempt to take the place of God the Creator; ‘quality of life’ cannot be a criterion of life; these were some of the themes for reflection chosen by Catholic Church in Korea for a national Day For Life on Sunday 29 May. For the occasion the Bio-Ethics Committee under the Committee for the Doctrine of the Faith of the Korean Bishops’ Conference issued a message in which it recalled the 10th anniversary of the Evangelium Vitae, encyclical written by Pope John Paul II in 1995. Bishop Francis Xavier Ahn Myong-ok chairman of the Committee who signed the message said “Human life has its own value just because it is of a human person and every attempt to measure human beings by ‘quality of life’ will eventually cause the degradation of the human person into the possessive value. Quality of life cannot be a criterion of life" and he encouraged Catholics in Korea to assimilate and put it into practice the teaching contained in the 'Gospel of Life' encyclica.
With regard to a recent breakthrough in human cloning in Korea by Prof. Dr. Hwang. “It is very sad to witness the current situation in which the result-oriented scientific technology is exploiting human life disregarding moral sense and the media are focussing only on the achievement and not pointing out the problems involved.”.
In September the Bio-Ethics Commission will hold a symposium on the dangers present in the alleged Bio-Ethics law in Korea now challenged by a constitutional amendment petition filed by the local Church’s Bio-Ethics Committee which will continue making an issue of the problem.
Rev. Paul Lee Chang, a member of the committee said “it is totally absurd to make a distinction between embryo cloning and human cloning”, and he said that together with faithful of other religions he would work to protect the embryo.
The Catholic scientific community is alarmed by Prof. Hwang’s experiments which if continued without control could lead to the first case of human cloning. With regard to the necessity of embryo stem cells Catholic scientists say there are no studies to prove these cells are indispensable to fight certain diseases.
(PA) (Agenzia Fides 27/5/2005 righe 32 parole 325)
