Leading Vatican Cardinal Says Cloning Worse Threat than Weapons of Mass Destruction

11/3/04

ROME — The Catholic Church's second most powerful prelate, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger has said at a public debate that cloning poses a greater threat to humanity than weapons of mass destruction. Ratzinger was speaking on the rise of secularism in the European Union when he made the comments. He was debating Ernesto Galli della Loggia, a professor of history of political doctrines and writer for the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera on October 25.

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"Man is capable of producing another man in the laboratory who, therefore, is no longer a gift of God or of nature. He can be fabricated and, just as he can be fabricated, he can be destroyed," said the prefect of the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

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The Cardinal, a long-time critic of the direction of biotechnological research, made his comments while the issue of a ban on cloning is still being considered at the United Nations with a possible vote on the matter in late November. While a majority of nations oppose all human cloning, a significant portion of European Union nations are supporting cloning for “therapeutic research.”

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See also:

Cardinal Ratzinger: Cloning More Dangerous Than Arms of Mass Destruction: Warns About Positivist Approach to Human Rights