Catholic Embryonic Stem Cell Researches and Excommunication

Jun. 28 (CWNews.com) - Scientists who conduct research involving the destruction of human embryos are subject to excommunication, the president of the Pontifical Council for the Family has warned.

In an interview with the Italian weekly Famiglia Cristiana, Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo said that the canonical penalty of excommunication, which is applied to those involved in abortion, also applies to involvement in stem-cell research.

Deliberately destroying embryos for research purposes, the prelate observed, "is equivalent to abortion." The same penalty would apply, he said, since "it is the same action."