ROME, NOV. 20, 2000 (ZENIT.org).- Beginning Jan. 1, the Catholic University
of Rome will provide a stem-cells bank which will be used to regenerate
human organs and tissues.

The plan provides for the extraction of stem cells from the blood of
umbilical cords. The program would avoid the grave ethical problems posed
by the use of cloned human embryos as spare parts.

The blood of the placenta, which has stem cells, will be sent to the bank
for storage. These cells offer extraordinary possibilities for persons
whose umbilical cords have been used, as well as for people of compatible
blood groups. Stem cells are the progenitors of the elements of blood, and,
when developed, can become muscular tissue, cartilage and blood vessels.

News of the stem-cells bank was announced Saturday by Salvatore Mancuso,
director of the University's Institute of Gynecology, during the congress
on "New Frontiers for Bioethics: Biotechnologies," organized for the 50th
anniversary of the scientific journal Medicina e Morale ( see
http://www.centrobioetica.org ).

Mancuso said that the university hopes to demonstrate that it is possible
to make progress in research without having to resort to cloning or to the
indiscriminate use of embryos created solely for this purpose. The bank
will be the first of its kind in Italy and a pioneer in Europe.

Archbishop Elio Sgreccia, vice president of the Pontifical Academy for Life
and director of the Bioethics Institute of the Catholic University of Rome,
told the Italian newspaper Il Giornale in its Sunday edition that "the
techniques to use stem cells extracted from the umbilical cord represent
genuine scientific progress."

"Above all, because they offer a kind of preventive therapy and constitute
a precious reserve to combat some sicknesses that could arise in the
future," the archbishop said, "however, above all because these techniques
offer greater possibilities for success as opposed to those based on the
extraction of stem cells from embryos."

According to Archbishop Sgreccia, "the scientific hypotheses, on which the
measures promoted by the English and U.S. governments are based, lack the
necessary foundation, both from the ethical as well as the experimental
point of view. Research rewards the use of stem cells extracted from the
umbilical cord and proves that it is not necessary to sacrifice embryos."

The archbishop concluded by explaining that "the use of embryos is
ethically unacceptable not only for those who are Catholic."

"It is not necessary to be a believer to recognize, above all, that the
embryo is a human being," he added. "It cannot be tolerated that human
beings be 'produced' to be used as simple deposits of cells. This is
prohibited by international codes."
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