Vatican warns of ethical risks with gene progress.

(Feb.18,2009): A Vatican official has warned that advances in genetic testing were creating a slow but relentless spread of a eugenics mentality - the effort to improve the quality of the human race by controlling heredity. Archbishop.Rino Fisichella, President of the Pontifical Academy for Life, made the warning on Tuesday, as he outlined the scope of an upcoming 2-day Vatican conference that starts on Friday on the theme: -“The New Frontiers of Genetics and the Risk of Eugenics”.
Archbishop Fisichella acknowledged that the term “eugenics”, harks back to the past, when most famously the Nazis used eugenic theories, to justify forced sterilization and other practices in their quest to establish a master race. But he said “the same mentality is spreading today under different names, and is hidden by slick publicity campaigns by well-funded bio-medical interests.” He warned that many technologies were being carried out with the promise of offering a normal life to people, when no one can claim to define what a normal life really is. This mentality tends to consider that there are people who have less value than others, he said, because they are disabled, mentally ill or in vegetative states. The Archbishop said the word “eugenics” has no place in democratic societies that in principle are respectful of human rights. However, the potential of scientific research to ease human suffering must certainly be exploited, he said. At the same time though, our ethical principles must be protected, he added.