Expert on stem cells exhorts Catholics to understand issue

"To have an informed debate," the priest said, "people need to be aware of what the real parameters of the discussion are: What is a human embryo? What is cloning? What are stem cells, and where do you get them from? And what's the price that's going to be paid if we take stem cells from certain sources like living, growing human embryos?"

Father Pacholczyk said later in an interview the claim that embryonic stem-cell research shows the greatest promise for curing disease "is vastly oversold." The number of those cured by use of such cells is "exactly zero," the priest said. He noted that "the true cures are coming from adult and umbilical cord stem cells."

This next paragraph is a good reminder about what the Church supports.

The priest noted the Catholic Church supports three of four types of stem-cell research, opposing only the use of embryonic stem cells.

Reiterating that point in a later interview with the St. Louis Review, archdiocesan newspaper, he said, "The Catholic Church vigorously supports healing. She runs the biggest network of hospitals in the world. She believes in healing, she promotes healing, but always in a manner that respects true human dignity, without violating that dignity in order to achieve a cure.