"Some media have advertised stem cells as a panacea for all sort of disease. Indeed, it has been proved that they are ineffective as no one has ever been cured by them," said today at the Vatican the President of the Pontifical Council of Health Care, Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan, introducing the International Conference on "Pastoral Care in the Treatment of Sick Children" (Synod Hall, 13-15 November). "In the medical field," said Professor Alberto Ugazio, Coordinator of the Department of Pediatrics in the Child Jesus Hospital of Rome, "we are always amazed at the excessive fuss ‘the media’ are making over fetal stem cells whose ineffectiveness is proved." There is no single research that can prove the opposite. On the contrary, it is necessary to say that important results have been achieved with the use of hematopoietic stem cells, i.e. from the spinal cord or the umbilical cord, of skin stem cells, of hepatic stem cells and of stem cells from other organs," said the Cardinal who added that "when the media speak about embryo stem cells they show a Malthusian mentality to bring down birth rate in poor countries. The Church, instead, reaffirms the concept that human beings cannot be used as means, even at their embryo stage. Human beings are always a purpose." ” ” ” ” ” “
