John Paul II speaks out against cloning
Two weeks after British scientists became the first in Europe to receive permission to clone human embryos for medical research, Pope John Paul II has issued a statement condemning human cloning as an arrogant attempt to improve on God's creation. In the statement, released on 22 August for a meeting of prominent Catholic cultural, political and business leaders on the theme of progress, John Paul II warned that humanity's rapid progress in science and technology threatens to overlook moral values. 'The results achieved in various fields of science and technology are considered and defended by many as a priori acceptable,' he said. 'In this way, one ends up expecting that what is technically possible is in itself also ethically good.' However, stated the Pope, medical research should not try to 'manipulate human beings according to a project considered with arrogance better than that of the Creator himself.' 'The way taught by Christ is another: it is that of respect for human beings,' he said, urging ethically responsible science and insisting that advances in research must not become an end in themselves. 'The sense of power that every technical progress inspires in man is well known. [...] The attempt by man to appropriate the source of life by experimenting with human cloning is example enough,' he added.