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March 12, 2005
The Vatican & Stem Cells
William Saletan has another fascinating article discussing a Vatican meeting on stem cell research and Jewish and Catholic theology regarding life issues.
Highlights:
"The first presenters, a couple of scientists, summarize the state of stem cell research. When they're done, a soft-spoken young priest in the front row raises his hand. "In a case of aneuploidy, it may be possible to laser ablate one or two of the blastomeres," he says. A priest in the back row asks about "aberrant silencing of the IGF and IGF2 receptor." I can hardly believe what I'm hearing. Afterward, I ask the first priest, Father Tad Pacholczyk, where he learned this stuff. Turns out he's got a Ph.D. in neuroscience from Yale, plus a research stint at Harvard Medical School and undergraduate degrees in biochemistry and molecular biology. Around the room, half the guys in collars are scientists."
and:
"Monday night at dinner, I ask Austriaco if he sees a Catholic-Jewish difference on these questions. He does, particularly among theologians. Jews follow diffuse commentary, he says; Catholics follow streamlined authority. Jews trust intuition; Catholics trust reason. 'You don't have as clear a definition of boundaries as we have,' he observes. This is why Catholics have an easier time getting over the yuck factor. 'We say, "Yeah, it looks yucky." But I'm a molecular biologist. We make tumors in the lab all the time. For a Catholic, if I can articulate what I'm doing, it's not yucky.'"
Posted by Ben at March 12, 2005 07:50 PM
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