DOCUMENT ON ORGAN TRANSPLANTS FROM ANIMALS TO HUMANS

VATICAN CITY, SEP 26, 2001 (VIS) - Presented this morning in the Holy See Press Office was a document of the Pontifical Academy for Life entitled: "The Perspective of Xenotransplantation (Organ Transplants from Animals to Humans). Scientific Aspects and Ethical Considerations." Participating in the presentation were Bishop Elio Sgreccia, vice-president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, and Profs. Emanuele Cozzi, Maurizio P. Faggioni, O.F.M., and Marialuisa Lavitrano, members of the group who prepared the document.
"The document," affirmed Bishop Sgreccia, "wishes to be a response and a contribution to future decisions in the area of xenotransplantation, which, in every case, will certainly have a worldwide value."

The text analyzes various basic problems (scientific, philosophical, anthropological), including "the ethical considerations of the use of animals to improve man's survival and well-being." In this regard Professor Faggioni recalled that in the vision expressed in the first chapters of Genesis "man has ... a true dominion over creation," but "cannot" reduce other creatures "to a kind of degrading and destructive slavery. ... The licitness of the use of animals involves ... the respect of certain conditions, such as the avoidance of unnecessary suffering for the animals and great caution in introducing uncontrollable genetic modifications which can cause useless pain or stress ... or significantly alter the biodiversity and equilibrium of species in the animal world."

ACAD-V;XENOTRANSPLANTATION;...;SGRECCIA;VIS;20010926;Word: 230;