The Vatican is calling the recent announcement that scientists created the first synthetic cell an “interesting result” that could help humanity. But it noted such technology must be viewed with appropriate concern for its potential impact on the environment and the dignity and sacredness of human life.
“Genetic engineering can do good: It is enough to think that it could heal chromosome-related diseases,” noted an article in the Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, according to a CNN report.
However, scientists must “join courage with caution,” it said.
The research could ultimately lead to the development of vaccines and biofuels. But it could also raise new questions about the nature of life.
Genetics pioneer J. Craig Venter and his team of researchers used sequences of genetic code created on a computer to assemble the complete DNA of a bacterium and insert it into a bacteria cell. The new cell replicated on its own, controlled by the engineered genome.
Some scientists commenting on the discovery pointed out that Venter did not create life from scratch or a new life form.
In recent days Vatican officials like Archbishop Rino Fisichella, who is president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, have expressed concerns on the topic, noting that God is the ultimate source and creator of life.
He has been joined by other church leaders like Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, head of the Italian bishops’ conference, who said Venter’s announcement is a further sign of intelligence as “God’s gift to understand creation and [to] be able to better govern it,” according to an Associated Press story quoting from the Apcom and ANSA news agencies.
Cardinal Bagnasco also noted, however, that “intelligence can never be without responsibility. Any form of intelligence and any scientific acquisition … must always be measured against the ethical dimension, which has at its heart the true dignity of every person.”
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