Matthew 2:18 - There is something disturbing about this news. Georgetown University Medical Center is using cells for research from people who were aborted.
Yahoo!® News has the AP story:
The Rev. Kevin T. Fitzgerald, a university bioethicist and a research associate professor in the oncology department, said that "while using such cell lines would not be our preference," the Catholic Church's guidelines on research and health care and widely accepted theology allowed the research to continue.
Under those guidelines, the cell lines can be used because the research could lead to lifesaving cures, because the pregnancies were not ended in order to get the cell lines, and because "the connection to abortion was distant and remote enough so as to not encourage or contribute to abortion in any way," the university said.
I'm not sure how the abortion could be "distant and remote" unless they are talking time. Turns out that had they graced the green earth with breath the people would be somewhere between 25 and 40 years of age.
The article makes the point that the researchers didn't know the origins of the cells.
Ignorance is bliss.
