X-Message-Number: 31285 From: Mark Plus <> Subject: The Pope's objections to freezing embryos. Date: Sat, 20 Dec 2008 10:28:15 -0800 From "Dignatas Personae" (page 11): http://www.usccb.org/comm/Dignitaspersonae/Dignitas_Personae.pdf "Cryopreservation is incompatible with the respect owed to human embryos; it presupposes their production in vitro; it exposes them to the serious risk of death or physical harm, since a high percentage does not survive the process of freezing and thawing; it deprives them at least temporarily of maternal reception and gestation; it places them in a situation in which they are susceptible to further offense and manipulation." The theologians who wrote this statement must have overlooked the part about sending embryos conceived and frozen today to the alienating world of the future where they would lack "ties or relationships to that time," as Arthur Caplan warns. Otherwise, these objections sound kind of familiar. "Around 2010 the world will be at a new orbit in history. . . Life expectancy will be indefinite. Disease and disability will nonexist. Death wll be rare and accidental -- but not permanent. We will continuously jettison our obsolescence and grow younger." F.M. Esfandiary, "Up-Wing Priorities" (1981). Mark Plus _________________________________________________________________ Send e-mail anywhere. No map, no compass. http://windowslive.com/oneline/hotmail?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_hotmail_acq_anywhere_122008 Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=31285