Roman Catholic Church

Official website: http://www.vatican.va

Beginning of Life

Quoted in Instructions to Dignitas Personae on Certain Bioethical Issues from original document Donum Vitae:

"Thus the fruit of human generation, from the first moment of its existence, that is to say, from the moment the zygote has formed, demands the unconditional respect that is morally due to the human being in his bodily and spiritual totality. The human being is to be respected and treated as a person from the moment of conception; and therefore from that same moment his rights as a person must be recognized, among which in the first place is the inviolable right of every innocent human being to life." (Dignitas Personae)

General view of the embryo See Declaration on Procured Abortion (quoted in Donum Vitae, part 5, section 1.1):

"From the time that the ovum is fertilized, a new life is begun which is neither that of the father nor of the mother; it is rather the life of a new human being with his own growth. It would never be made human if it were not human already. To this perpetual evidence ... modern genetic science brings valuable confirmation. It has demonstrated that, from the first instant, the programme is fixed as to what this living being will be: a man, this individual-man with his characteristic aspects already well determined. Right from fertilization is begun the adventure of a human life, and each of its great capacities requires time ... to find its place and to be in a position to act." (Declaration on Procured Abortion,)

General Theological perspective on Embryos:

"The body of a human being, from the very first stages of its existence, can never be reduced merely to a group of cells. The embryonic human body develops progressively according to a well-defined program with its proper finality, as is apparent in the birth of every baby." Dignitas Personae)

Abortion

Official Statement: from Section 14 of Humanae Vitae. Abortion is prohibited for any reason, including medical.

"Therefore We base Our words on the first principles of a human and Christian doctrine of marriage when We are obliged once more to declare that the direct interruption of the generative process already begun and, above all, all direct abortion, even for therapeutic reasons, are to be absolutely excluded as lawful means of regulating the number of children." (Section 14 of Humanae Vitae)

Regarding selective abortions after fertility treatment (from Dignitas Personae, part 2, section 21):

"From the ethical point of view, embryo reduction is an intentional selective abortion. It is in fact the deliberate and direct elimination of one or more innocent human beings in the initial phase of their existence and as such it always constitutes a grave moral disorder." (Dignitas Personae, part 2, section 21)

Contraception

Official Statement:

"It is supremely desirable, and this was also the mind of Pius XII, that medical science should by the study of natural rhythms succeed in determining a sufficiently secure basis for the chaste limitation of offspring." (Section 24, Humanae Vitae)

"Similarly excluded is any action which either before, at the moment of, or after sexual intercourse, is specifically intended to prevent procreation—whether as an end or as a means. . . . Consequently, it is a serious error to think that a whole married life of otherwise normal relations can justify sexual intercourse which is deliberately contraceptive and so intrinsically wrong>" (Section 14, Humanae Vitae)

Infertility & Reproduction

Reproductive Technology

Official Statement:

"In light of this principle, all techniques of heterologous artificial fertilization, as well as those techniques of homologous artificial fertilization which substitute for the conjugal act, are to be excluded. On the other hand, techniques which act as an aid to the conjugal act and its fertility are permitted." (Dignitas Personae, Part 2, section 12)"

"Certainly, techniques aimed at removing obstacles to natural fertilization, as for example, hormonal treatments for infertility, surgery for endometriosis, unblocking of fallopian tubes or their surgical repair, are licit. All these techniques may be considered authentic treatments because, once the problem causing the infertility has been resolved, the married couple is able to engage in conjugal acts resulting in procreation, without the physician’s action directly interfering in that act itself. None of these treatments replaces the conjugal act, which alone is worthy of truly responsible procreation." (Dignitas Personae, Part 2, section 13)

"The fundamental values connected with the techniques of artificial human procreation are two: the life of the human being called into existence and the special nature of the transmission of human life in marriage. The moral judgment on such methods of artificial procreation must therefore be formulated in reference to these values." (Donum Vitae, Part 4)

Frozen Oocytes

Official Statement:

"" ( {add citation info})

Healthcare & Medicine

Access to Healthcare

Official Statement:

"" ( {add citation info})

Conscience Issues

Official Statement:

"" ( {add citation info})

Medical Tourism

Official Statement:

"" ( {add citation info})

Organ Donation & Transplantation

Official Statement:

"" ( {add citation info})

Privacy of Healthcare Information

Official Statement:

"" ( {add citation info})

Science & Technology

Biotechnology

Animal-Human Hybrids & Chimeras

"" ( {add citation info})

Human Cloning

Official Position:

"" ( {add citation info})

Stem Cell Research

Official Position: from Dignitas Personae

"With regard to the ethical evaluation, it is necessary to consider the methods of obtaining stem cells as well as the risks connected with their clinical and experimental use." (Dignitas Personae, Part 3, Section 32)

"The obtaining of stem cells from a living human embryo, on the other hand, invariably causes the death of the embryo and is consequently gravely illicit: “research, in such cases, irrespective of efficacious therapeutic results, is not truly at the service of humanity. In fact, this research advances through the suppression of human lives that are equal in dignity to the lives of other human individuals and to the lives of the researchers themselves. History itself has condemned such a science in the past and will condemn it in the future, not only because it lacks the light of God but also because it lacks humanity”." (Dignitas Personae, Part 3, section 32; quote from Benedict XVI, Address to the participants in the Symposium on the topic: “Stem Cells: what is the future for therapy?” organized by the Pontifical Academy for Life (16 September 2006): AAS 98 (2006), 694.)

Emerging Technologies

Ethical Use of Technology

Official Statement:

"" ( {add citation info})

Genetic Ethics

Gender Selection

Official Statement:

"" ( {add citation info})

Gene Therapy/Genetic Engineering

Official Statement:

"" ( {add citation info})

Genetic Screening

Official Statement:

"" ( {add citation info})

Genetic Testing

Official Statement:

"" ( {add citation info})

Patenting of Human Tissue/Gene Patenting

Official Statement:

"" ( {add citation info})

Human Enhancement

Official Statement:

"" ( {add citation info})

Cyborgs

Official Statement:

"" ( {add citation info})

Transhumanism/Posthumanism

Official Statement:

"" ( {add citation info})

Human Research Ethics

Official Statement:

"" ( {add citation info})

Experimentation on Human Embryos

Official Statement: embryonic research (from IVF):

"Human embryos obtained in vitro are human beings and subjects with rights: their dignity and right to life must be respected from the first moment of their existence. It is immoral to produce human embryos destined to be exploited as disposable "biological material"…It is a duty to condemn the particular gravity of the voluntary destruction of human embryos obtained 'in vitro' for the sole purpose of research, either by means of artificial insemination of by means of 'twin fission'." (Donum Vitae, part 5, section 1.4)

End of Life

Artificial Hydration & Nutrition

Official Statements:

"" ( {add citation info})

Definition of Death

Official Statements:

"" ( {add citation info})

Extraordinary Measures

Official Statements:

"" ( {add citation info})

Physician-Assisted Suicide/Euthanasia

Official Statement:

"" ( {add citation info})

Withholding & Withdrawing Treatment

Official Statement:

"" ( {add citation info})

Issues of Human Dignity & Discrimination

Disability Ethics

Official Statement:

"" ( {add citation info})

Eugenics

Official Statements:

"" ( {add citation info})