PAPAL AUTHORITY COULD RECONSIDER STAND

June 27, 1996

NEW YORK (DTNS) -- According a Reuters story released on June 26, the Vatican may soon be switching to a more pragmatic stand on reproductive cloning.

In a story carried at a Reuters Web site (reutershealth.com), Reuters report the Pontifical Academy of Life, appointed by Pope John Paul II, to have issued a statement to the effect that cloning humans would not result in identical souls, and that "the constitutive kernel" of life cannot be replicated through cloning.

The council's comments seem to be a marked departure from earlier statements released by the Vatican within days after the successful cloning of a sheep became public in February, in which the Vatican urged governments to ban human cloning.

While the panel cautioned that cloned humans would be pschologically affected by the awareness of having been born as a result of reproductive cloning, the recent statement implies a recognition of reproductive cloning as a legitimate means of inception.

Some analysts believe the pro-propagation Vatican, which is staunchly opposed to abortion or contraception, could be turning toward embracing reproductive cloning as a new technology for fulfilling traditional aims.