Catholic Church Condems Hwang Woo Suk -Stem Cell Research

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The Catholic church has condemned embryonic stem cell research.


SEOUL, South Korea — The world's leading stem cell researcher, Hwang
Woo-suk, said he would push forward with his research while
maintaining respect for human dignity after this summer confronting
Catholic critics who have condemned his work as unethical.

"All science has two sides," Hwang said, adding that the religious
groups serve to help provide ethical constraints to his work.
To ensure that his research is done transparently and in an ethical
manner, Hwang said he would meet religious and civic groups to
listen to their views, as long as it doesn't compromise the security
of his work.The Roman Catholic Church issued a statement in early June stating opposition to Hwang's research and stressing that embryos are living beings.

"Embryos are life. We were all embryos once," said a statement
signed by the Episcopal Commission for Doctrine and the Episcopal
Commission for Social Affairs, which handle Catholic Church matters
in Korea."Professor Hwang Woo-suk's work entails anti-life activities of cloning an embryo, a human life, and destroying of a life," said the statement, posted on the Catholic Church in Korea's Web site. "A cloned embryo is clearly human life. Thus, experimenting or controlling of an embryo defies the dignity of man."
The church warned that Hwang's recent research in therapeutic
cloning heightened the possibility that a human being could be
created. "This infringes on life and will bring numerous disasters
to mankind," the statement said.The church said the research could relegate women to the status of a "biological tool" for producing and donating eggs.

"I will take lessons from the great teachings and guidance," Hwang
told reporters after a meeting in early June with Seoul Archbishop
Nicholas Cheong Jin-suk. "I will not fail to meet the Archbishop's
expectations." The debate over stem cell research was rekindled after Hwang's team created the first therapeutic embryonic stem cells that genetically match injured or sick patients — a major step in the quest to grow replacement tissue to treat diseases. His work was carried in the medical journal Science.The researchers at Seoul National University collected eggs donated by 18 unpaid volunteers and removed the gene-containing nucleus from each of them. They then implanted those eggs with DNA from the skin cells of patients with spinal cord injuries, diabetes or genetic immune diseases, and chemically jump-started cellular division.The process produced 31 blastocysts — early stage embryos with about 100 cells each. From those, the scientists harvested 11 stem cell lines.Culling stem cells destroys the days-old embryos harboring them.Last year, Hwang's team created the world's first cloned human embryos.
Cheong has previously called for an immediate halt to Hwang's
research, which involves creating and destroying human embryos to
extract stem cells — master cells that can develop into any body
tissue. Cheong has likened manipulating cloned embryos to "murder,"
condemning the research as a "serious violation of human dignity."

However, Cheong said he was somewhat relieved to find out Hwang's
research would be "complementary" to research into adult stem cells —
an area supported by many opponents of the use of embryonic stem
cells as an alternative that doesn't involve destroying embryos.
Researchers, however, say adult stem cells are less versatile and
are sometimes damaged by the health problems of the adult.

"I will pray for God's blessing for his future research," Cheong
said.Ahn Curie, a doctor on Hwang's team, stressed that research into embryonic stem cells goes hand in hand with that into adult stem cells."We can stop, at any time, embryonic stem cell research into areas where adult stem cells have proven to provide cures," she said.The archbishop has also expressed fears Hwang and his researchers may have heightened the possibility of cloning humans. Hwang has repeatedly said human cloning is neither the aim of his research nor a possible venture."Human cloning is unethical and technically impossible," Hwang said, adding that the world wouldn't see cloned humans within this century.Bo-Mi Lim is a writer for The Associated Press.

Additional reporting by Associated Press writer Ji-Soo Kim.