What Is Man, O Lord? The Human Person in a Biotech Age.

• Position: Book Review

Boston: The National Catholic Bioethics Center, 2002; www.ncbcenter.org.

The advances in biotechnology that have made it possible to decipher the human genetic code, to alter the very biological structures of human life, and even to mix genetic material of different species have opened new vistas for the cure of human diseases and disorders. At the same time it must be acknowledged that much of this research raises grave moral questions, especially with regard to the treatment given to human beings at the first stages of their development. The Catholic tradition, drawing upon the principles of the natural law, clearly affirms that "the human being is to be respected and treated as a person from the first moment of conception; and therefore, from that same moment his rights as a person must be recognized, among which in the first place is the inviolable right of every human being to life." Since the fundamental ethical criterion governing scientific research can only be the defense and the promotion of the integral good of the human person, it follows that any procedure performed on human beings, even at the very dawn of their personal existence, must respect the dignity and rights originating in human nature itself. Far from an extrinsic...