PONTIFICAL PANEL SAYS SOULS ARE UNCLONABLE

June 24, 1997

VATICAN CITY (AP) -- Human cloning would not result in identical souls because only God can create a soul, a panel set up by Pope John Paul II has concluded.

The Pontifical Academy of Life said the spiritual soul, "the constitutive kernel" of every human created by God, cannot be produced through cloning.

The panel's reflections were released Tuesday by the Vatican, which long has forbidden any kind of artificial fertilization or human cloning to create new beings.

The panel expressed concern that cloned humans would pay the price psychically for being aware of the "real, or even only 'virtual' presence of his 'other'."

The academy called for cultural, social and legislative efforts to stop any human cloning project.