COMPASS members are making waves; catch them by reading COMPASS News, a couple articles every week, written (mostly) by COMPASS members for (mostly) COMPASS members, to share ideas, to voice opinions, and to keep the fervor flowing.
[By: Shawn Sheehy, College of the Holy Cross '06] On September 25, 2002, COMPASS students and members of the College of the Holy Cross community gathered in the Rehm Library to discuss one of the most pressing moral issues of the day: human cloning and embryonic stem cell research. In a fabulous lecture given by Father Tadeusz Pacholczyk, Ph.D., a diocesan priest from Fall River, Massachusetts, and a doctor of neuroscience from Yale University, COMPASS learned how scientific evidence proves the Church's moral teachings on stem cells and cloning correct.
Father Tad painted the moral portrait that depicted cloning for what it really is: the degrading of a human being into an object therefore removing the dignity that is innate in all of us, that dignity that all humans deserve. He showed this by illustrating that cloning makes us view human beings as products, rather than as beings created out of love.
Father Tad went on to explore the question of whether or not therapeutic cloning is the same as reproductive cloning. Father Tad concluded that there is no difference in procedure, only a different intention. Therefore, since the nature of the act largely determines its morality, then both types of cloning are morally wrong.
Furthermore, the discussion went onto explore the idea that there are other ways to obtain stem-cells other than cloning and embryonic stem cells. Studies have shown that the usage of fat cells, obtained from liposuction are copious suppliers of stem cells that are pluripotent, and, therefore, capable of generating into cells that can heal diseases.
Finally, the talk went into the realm of metaphysics. Father Tad said that if, in fact, a human being was successfully cloned, he would have a soul. Once the union of egg and sperm occurs, regardless of the procedure used, God infuses a soul into the body of the individual human being. Thus the belief that life begins at conception.
Father Tad was a delightful guest of COMPASS at the College of the Holy Cross. His wisdom showed that the dignity of the human person is of paramount importance, and that this dignity stems from the love that creates human life.
