Dignitas personae

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Dignitas personae ( Latin for The Dignity of the Person ) is the title of an instruction that would be published on December 8, 2008 by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith . This basic text on bioethical issues was completed on September 8, 2008 and has the official title: "Dignitas personae - On some questions in bioethics".

This 30-page work has the status of an “instruction” and for the Catholic Church is a binding statement of the Church's teaching office, even if it does not formally have the status of an encyclical . This basic work was created in collaboration between the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the Pontifical Academy for Life and builds on the earlier instruction “ Donum vitae ” (1987) and the encyclical “ Evangelium vitae ” (1995) by Pope John Paul II . Their special authority is derived from the papal approbation on June 20, 2008.

In Dignitas personae , the well-known positions of the Church are not only repeated, but rather it is based on the latest scientific findings and rejects certain developments in reproductive medicine with the positive intention of protecting human dignity . This includes the production of human-animal hybrid beings propagated in Great Britain and the attempts to obtain embryo-like stem cells by cell nucleus exchange .

The instruction is mainly directed against “ in vitro fertilization ”, mainly for the reason that the production of surplus embryos and their destruction is accepted. The instruction is also combined with pastoral approaches and shows understanding for the suffering of unwanted childless married couples.

According to the instruction, drugs or vaccines may be used to save the life of a child , “in the preparation of which cell lines of unauthorized origin were used, but all are obliged to object to them and to require that health systems use other types of vaccines Make available. "(No. 35)

The authors of the document were Elio Sgreccia , William Levada, and Luis Ladaria .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ "Cardinal Elio Sgreccia died at the age of 90" on kathisch.de of June 5, 2019