USA: le Cardinal Keeler à propos des “vrais et faux” progrès de la science.

Recent developments "hailed as forms of technical progress" by some people, are really "regressive and harmful in their effects on human life," says a cardinal.

In a statement marking Respect Life Sunday, celebrated in Catholic parishes this year on Oct. 1, Cardinal William Keeler welcomed "true advances" in respect for human life in our society. But he criticized other recent developments that harm human life.

Cardinal Keeler, archbishop of Baltimore, is chairman of the bishops' Committee for Pro-Life Activities.

Among the "signs of progress" welcomed by the cardinal are the "enthusiastic involvement" of young people in pro-life education and activism and "the growing number of youth committed to living chastely until marriage," a trend that has helped reduce abortions.

The prelate noted shifts in public opinion against abortion, spurred in part by "the public debate on partial-birth abortion," and against the use of the death penalty.

Among negative developments Cardinal Keeler cited FDA approval of the abortion drug RU-486 and the Plan B "emergency contraceptive," which can harm women and trigger earlier abortions.

"In the field of stem cell research," he added, "the genuine and growing promise of treatments using adult stem cells is often downplayed or ignored, while exaggerated or even fraudulent claims are made for avenues that require destroying early human lives."

Cloning as a "right"

Citing the example of a "Stem Cell Research and Cures Initiative" on the November ballot in Missouri , he said the initiative claims to ban human cloning but "would actually elevate the cloning of human embryos for destructive research to the status of a constitutional right."

Cardinal Keeler, 75, said that powerful groups in our society ignore basic facts today to promote "a narrow and divisive view of the human person," just as the Supreme Court ignored basic facts in 1973 to create a constitutional "right" to abortion.

He added: "Let us educate and motivate ourselves to ensure that truth -- the scientific and medical truth, and the profound truth about the dignity of each human person -- will increasingly inform and guide our society's decisions about human life," he said.

The bishops' annual Respect Life Program, established in 1972, provides educational materials for parishes to distribute beginning on Respect Life Sunday, celebrated the first Sunday in October.

This year's materials discuss partial-birth abortion, capital punishment, environmental safety, the benefits of stable marriages to children, sexual ethics, and stem cell research.

www.usccb.org/comm/archives/2006/06-167.shtml.